HOME INSTRUCTION PROGRAM FOR PRESCHOOL YOUNGSTERS (HIPPY)

OVERVIEW

Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) is a home-visitation program designed to teach parents how to enhance preschool-age 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
 

Baker, A. J. L., & Piotrkowski, C. S. (1996). Parents and children through the school years: The effects of the Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters. New York, NY: National Council of Jewish Women Center for the Child.

Evaluated Population: Families from a large city in New York State (37 families in the intervention group and 32 in the control group) for Cohort I and families from the same area (47 families in the intervention group and 66 in the control group) for Cohort II were evaluated. All children were enrolled in prekindergarten at the same time as the first year of HIPPY. All children were four years old at year one. The four groups (Cohort I – HIPPY and Comparison, Cohort II – HIPPY and Comparison) ranged from 19 percent African-American to 41 percent African-American. They ranged from 22 percent Hispanic to 38 percent Hispanic.

Approach: The authors collected data at post-test on the home school environment. Variables collected were the following: number of types of literacy materials in the home, number of play materials in the home, parental expectation

s of child’s educational attainment, parental expectations of the child’s educational performance, the Cooperative Preschool Inventory, attendance, standardized reading, standardized math, and classroom adaptation. Five variables were collected at the one-year follow-up: attendance, standardized reading, standardized math, grades, and classroom adaptation.

Results: Cohort II had no significant impacts. Cohort I had four significant impacts: parental expectations of performance at post-test (d=.72), classroom adaptation at post-test (d=.76), standardized reading at one-year follow-up (d=.69), and classroom adaptation at one-year follow-up (d=.73). The following variables were not significant at post-test: number of types of literacy materials in the home, number of play materials in the home, parental expectations of child’s educational attainment, Cooperative Preschool Inventory, attendance, standardized reading, and standardized math. The following variables were not significant at one-year follow-up: attendance, standardized math, grades, and academic self-image.

Baker, A. J. L., Piotrokowski, C. S., & Brooks-Gunn, J.  (1998). The effects of the Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) on children’s school performance at the end of the program and one year later. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 13(4), 571-588.
 

Evaluated Population: Families from a large city in New York State (37 families in the intervention group and 32 in the control group) for Cohort I and families from the same area (47 families in the intervention group and 66 in the control group) for Cohort II. All children were enrolled in prekindergarten at the same time as the first year of HIPPY. All children were four years old at year one. The four groups (Cohort I – HIPPY and Comparison, Cohort II – HIPPY and Comparison) ranged from 16 percent African American to 47 percent African American. They ranged from 28 percent Latino to 38 percent Latino.

Approach: Randomization procedures are the same as study 1.  Outcomes assessed in this study were cognitive skills at post-test, as well as standardized reading, standardized math, and classroom adaptation at both post-test and one year follow up. 

Results: Cohort II had no significant impacts. Cohort I had four significant impacts: cognitive skills at post-test (d=.63), classroom adaptation at post-test (d=.69), standardized reading at one-year follow-up (d=.75), and classroom adaptation at one-year follow-up (d=.68). The following variables were not significant at post-test: standardized reading, and standardized math. Only standardized math was not significant at one year follow-up.

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.

Baker, A. J. L., & Piotrkowski, C. S. (1996). Parents and children through the school years: The effects of the Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters. New York, NY: National Council of Jewish Women Center for the Child.

 KEYWORDS: Children, Home Visitation, Academic Achievement, Parenting-management skills, Kindergarten, Preschool, Parental-child relationship, Clinic or Provider Based, Parent or Family Component, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, White or Caucasian, Urban, Reading/Literacy, Mathematics

Program information last updated 12/16/11

© Child Trends 2003