MoSPIN

Missouri Statewide Parent Involvement Network (MoSPIN)

Three young boys and an adult woman gather around a table covered in holiday goodies and smile at the camera. In the background is a beautifully decorated Christmas tree.

Left: Parent Advisor, Sherri Nichols, and her family celebrated their 100th visit together. They celebrated with stockings filled with a 100-piece puzzle, 100 stickers, and 100 candy canes.

The purpose of the Missouri Statewide Parent Involvement Network (MoSPIN) is to provide a free homebased program for families of children, birth through five years of age, who are visually impaired, including those with multiple disabilities and combined vision and hearing challenges. Services are coordinated with local education agencies, adult service providers and deafblind task forces to enhance networking and to build expertise in the community.

MoSPIN provides:

Home visits by parent advisors… parents select one or two hour visits, not to exceed four hours per month;
Focus on parents as their child’s first and most important teacher;
Information to help parents understand their child’s visual diagnosis and learning characteristics;
Parent lessons on vision, communication, motor, hearing or cognition from the national INSITE curriculum;
Ongoing support and provision of resources to families.

A little girl in a pink shirt uses the APH Light Box Kit in a darkened room Left: A child uses an APH Light Box Kit during her MoSPIN home visit.

For additional information regarding the MoSPIN program or activities relating to families of children with combined vision and hearing loss, contact:

Melissa Moore, Lead Parent Advisor MoSPIN, Family Engagement Coordinator

Missouri School for the Blind

3815 Magnolia Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63110

314-633-1591 or Melissa.Moore@msb.dese.mo.gov

To submit forms: please download to your computer, fill out, save and e-mail to Melissa.Moore@msb.dese.mo.gov