Untitled Experimental Program for Mothers of Disadvantaged Preschool Children

UNTITLED EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM FOR MOTHERS OF DISADVANTAGED PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

OVERVIEW

This parent education program aimed to train mothers with low education and socioeconomic levels techniques to support the cognitive and language development of their preschool-age children. Mothers were taught to use inexpensive household materials to create learning toys to demonstrate reading and math concepts to their children. The program was found to improve children’s intellectual functioning and language skills.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target Population: Low-income mothers and their preschool-age children.

The training program consisted of 11 two-hour sessions, which were held once a week and led by three experienced preschool teachers. The children received 12 weeks of activities through their mothers. Teachers were responsible for working with five mothers, and the mothers received hourly compensation for each session they attended (representing an amount that was higher than the hourly wage that the mothers might be expected to e at the time the program was implemented). The teachers instruct the mothers on how to make inexpensive educational aids and teach the mothers songs and finger plays. The mothers are encouraged to use these learning aids to support their children’s learning and development at home. During an informal coffee-break time, mothers and teachers talk among one another about how the children are doing and teachers often give advice on how to tweak any of the materials or activities for a particular child.

EVALUATIONS OF PROGRAM

Karnes, M. B., Studley, W. M., Wright, W. R., & Hodgins, A. S. (1968). An approach for working with mothers of disadvantaged preschool children.

Evaluated Population: Thirty children ages three to four years were evaluated. Only preschool-age children who were not attending preschool programs were selected for the study. The children were all from a low-income neighborhood. Mothers of preschool-aged children with low education and socioeconomic levels were identified for the study through a principal in the community. The children in the study were black.

Approach: Thirty children were matched on IQ and sex and were then randomly assigned to the experimental group (N=13) or control group (N=13) group within matched pairs. While there were initially 15 matched pairs, only 13 groups remained eligible or available to participate in the study throughout the three-month study period.

Mothers of children in the experimental group were eligible to receive a training intervention and were taught by preschool teachers how to develop and use tools to support their children’s learning at home. Parents of children in the control group did not have access to the training intervention.

The study compared changes in the pre-test and post-test scores on intellectual functioning and language development for children in the experimental and control groups. Intellectual functioning, including “mental age” and “IQ”, was measured using the Stanford Binet Intelligence Scales. “Mental age” measures the gain in intellectual functioning that should occur based on chronological age. Linguistic functioning was measured by a set of subtests and the total score on the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA). :

Results: From pretest to posttest, children in the experimental group experienced higher gains in intellectual functioning (as indicated through both their “mental age” score and IQ score) and in linguistic functioning (as indicated through their ITPA subtest scores on visual decoding, auditory-vocal association, and auditory-vocal sequential), as compared to children in the control group. Both groups showed improvements in all areas over the three month study period, but the gains of the experimental group were significantly greater than those of the control group in these areas. No significant differences were found on the following subtests, which are measures of linguistic skills: auditory decoding, visual-motor association, motor encoding, auditory-vocal automatic, or visual-motor sequential score. There were marginal impacts on the vocal encoding and total language score. Long-term effects of the program are unknown.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References:

Karnes, M. B., Studley, W. M., Wright, W. R., & Hodgins, A. S. (1968). An approach for working with mothers of disadvantaged preschool children. Report prepared for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office of Education. Urbana, IL: Institute for Research on Exceptional Children, College of Education, University of Illinois.

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: Early Childhood (0-5)

Program components: School-based

Measured outcomes: Cognitive development, language development pre-literacy and pre-numeracy skills.

KEYWORDS: Children (3-11), Preschool, School-based, Black/African American, Early Childhood Education, Community-based, Parent Training/Education, Parent or Family Component, Skills Training, Other Education, Reading/Literacy, Mathematics.

		© Child Trends 2004