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Guide
to Effective Programs
for Children and Youth
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HOME INSTRUCTION PROGRAM FOR PRESCHOOL YOUNGSTERS (HIPPY)
OVERVIEW
HIPPY is a home-visitation program designed to teach parents how to enhance children's school readiness. Home visits are conducted by paraprofessionals, and are complemented by program-organized group meetings for parents. An experimental evaluation of HIPPY shows that parental participation can result in better cognitive and educational outcomes in children. Evidence suggests that HIPPY does not have this impact for children of parents with lower levels of program involvement.
PROGRAM INFORMATION
Target population: Families with 4- and 5-year-old children
The Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) is a home visitation program that serves families with 4- and 5-year-old children. It consists of home visits by paraprofessionals and meetings of groups of parents in order to teach parents how to carry out educational activities with their children so that they will be ready for school. Parents are given books and activity packets to use with their children, and are instructed to work for 15 minutes each day. The activity packets are designed to improve language and critical thinking skills, such as talking about a text and vocabulary building (Baker, Piotrkowski, & Brooks-Gunn, 1999).
EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM
Evaluated population: 182 families in New York state
Evaluations of HIPPY have shown that it achieves some positive outcomes for some participants, but not for others. For example, in a study in New York State, a total of 182 families in two different cohorts were randomly assigned to receive the intervention or to be in a control group. The intervention families were in HIPPY for two years, and children in both the experimental and control groups were in high-quality, full-day preschool programs during the first year and kindergartens the second year. In cohort I, HIPPY children performed better than control group children on measures of cognitive skills at the end of kindergarten and on a standardized reading test at the end of first grade. However, none of these effects were found for cohort II. In trying to determine what could have caused such different outcomes for the two cohorts, the authors posit that varying levels of parent involvement were to blame. In home visitation programs, attrition, canceled appointments with home visitors, lack of (or waning) enthusiasm and not sticking to the prescribed schedule of parent-child activities can be problems.
SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION
Link to program curriculum:
http://www.hippyusa.org/Model/starting_program.html#
References:
Baker, A. J. L., Piotrkowski, C. S., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1999). The Home Instructional Program for Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY). The Future of Children, 9(1), 116-133.
Program also discussed in the following Child Trends publication(s):
Child
Trends. (2001). School readiness: Helping communities get children ready for
school and schools ready for children (Research brief). Washington, DC:
Child Trends.
Halle,
T., Zaff, J., Calkins, J., & Margie, N. G. (2000). Background for
community-level work on school readiness: A review of definitions, assessments,
and investment strategies. Part II: Reviewing the literature on contributing
factors to school readiness. Washington, DC: Child Trends, Inc.
SUMMARY & CATEGORIZATION
Program categorized in this guide according to the
following:
Evaluated participant ages: 4-5 / Program age ranges in the
Guide: 0-5
Program components: clinic/provider-based, home visiting,
parent/family
Measured outcomes: education/cognitive
Program information last updated 3/14/07
