The Parent-Child Home Program - Detailed Report

Goals

• Positive parent-child interaction
• Children’s healthy social-emotional development
• School Readiness

Outcomes

• Increase quality and quantity of parent-child verbal interaction
• Increase pro-social behavior in the child
• Strengthen Families
  

Program Services

• Provide parent-child dyads with home visits
• Provide parent-child dyads with books and toys
• Involve parent-child dyads in reading and play activities
• Link families to community services

Four major components define the Parent-Child Home Program (PHCP) Curriculum. PCHP’s curriculum is conveyed by the Home Visitor (HV) to the parent or primary caregiver during the home visit.

• Verbal Interaction Techniques. Focuses on nurturing the child’s intellectual growth through conversation with the parent or primary caregiver. It promotes parent-child verbal interaction around the books and toys. The Verbal Interaction Techniques are made more tangible to participants and to the HV through a Guide Sheet that accompanies each book and toy. Each Guide Sheet is in itself a “curriculum” since it is a one-page summary of the intellectually stimulating components of the Program’s version of the “hidden curriculum.” It is a “hidden curriculum” because the HV does not directly teach parents, but instead models for them reading, conversation, and play activities. The HV receives a Guide Sheet for each week’s new book or toy and distributes copies of the same Guide Sheet to the program participants (Levenstein, 1988).
• Positive Parenting Behavior. Focuses on twenty items of Positive Parenting Behavior (Baumrind, 1967), modeled by the HV throughout the two years of home visits. Those items include: responding verbally to the child’s verbal or nonverbal requests for attention; verbalizing affection toward the child; and clearly verbalizing child expectations.
• Social Emotional Development. Focuses on helping children develop not only their language and cognitive skills, but also their social relationships as they pertain toward their inner selves and toward the world of work, play, and ideas. Thus, this program goal, achievable mainly through the practice of “Positive Parenting”, is to foster children’s Social Emotional Competence (Levenstein, 1988).
• Curriculum Materials (Books and Toys): For each program year, the twelve books and eleven toys distributed to the families are of good quality – sturdy, attractive, available at most toy and bookstores and, most importantly, cognitively stimulating at a variety of levels. As noted earlier, the books and toys are gifts for the family and they provide a focus for both the child and parent, sparking verbal interaction between them.

Home Visitors: Home Visitors (HVs) are primarily paid “paraprofessionals,” most of whom are former program parent-participants and/or community residents. All HVs are trained together in an initial sixteen-hour training workshop and in weekly HVs supervisory meetings throughout the Program year. They are trained not to be social workers or teachers, but to focus on modeling for parents how to utilize the three parts of the curriculum while playing and talking with their children. The Home Visitors meet weekly during each Program year with the Coordinator. They learn the Verbal Interaction Techniques for each new book or toy, by role-playing and reviewing the Guide Sheets. They also get support and counsel for the issues they encounter in home visits and which they note in their Home Session Records (Levenstein, 1988).

Supervision (Coordinators): The Program Coordinator is responsible for the effective implementation of the PHCP replication site. The Coordinator is typically a professional in a field closely aligned with the Program, such as, early childhood or parenting education, nursing, psychology or social work. The Coordinator must be knowledgeable and caring about interpersonal behavior, values, and attitudes in families. Essentially the job of the Coordinator is to pull together the three other elements of the Program – Home Visitors, curriculum materials and curriculum – to form a smoothly working and effective whole.

Scarr, S., & McCartney, K. (1988). Far from home: An experimental evaluation of the Mother-Child Home Program in Bermuda. Child Development, 59, 531-543.

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of participants: 125 families
Population:

Age Range: 2 year old children
Race/Ethnicity: Unknown
Status (e.g., foster care, CW): Volunteers recruited through birth records and advertising.

Location/Institution: Bermuda
Summary: (To include comparison groups, outcomes, measures, notable limitations) Families were randomly assigned to receive either the Mother-Child Home Program (MCHP) or to the control group. The authors note that, in contrast to U.S. families, the Bermuda sample was more likely to have mothers who were working, single, and had no more than a high school education. Families were more likely to live in a rented house. Children were more likely to be in a full or part-time childcare program. Children were assessed at baseline with the Stanford Binet Test of Intelligence and the Bayley Scale of Mental Development. They also received an achievement test designed by the program developer to test children on the curriculum of the MCHP. Motivation to learn was assessed through observation and with the Infant Behavior Record and the Cain-Levine Social Competency Scale. The effect of the intervention on mothers was assessed through a teaching task. They were also interviewed regarding their discipline style and assessed on self-esteem, parental values, and vocabulary. Finally, children were assessed at baseline and at 2-year follow-up with a developmentally appropriate delay of gratification task. Only two child outcomes were significant at the follow-up: Treatment group children performed better at a designated sorting task and were rating higher on communication skills by their mothers. One reason suggested for lack of effects was the fact that a high proportion of children in Bermuda receive experiences in pre-school programs that are similar to those provided by the intervention.
Length of post-intervention follow-up: 2 years

Levenstein, P., Levenstein, S., & Oliver, D. (2002). First grade school readiness of former child participants in a South Carolina replication of the Parent-Child Home Program. Applied Developmental Psychology, 23, 331-353.

Type of Study: Comparison to population data
Number of participants: 84 children
Population:

Age Range: Unknown
Race/Ethnicity: 89.3% African American, 10.7% European American
Status (e.g., foster care, CW): Referred to program for risk factors

Location/Institution: South Carolina
Summary: (To include comparison groups, outcomes, measures, notable limitations)This study compares first grade school readiness of children who received the Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP) to scores for children in the state as a whole. Child had been referred into the program by social welfare workers or teachers of older siblings based on high risk factors including school learning problems in siblings, failure of parents to attend conferences, or physically visible deprivation. School readiness was based on scores on the Cognitive Skills Assessment Battery (CSAB), administered to all first graders in South Carolina. This test measures levels of 12 objectives, including fine and gross motor skills, memory, communications skills, and comparison and classification skills. Comparison of passing rates was done for both the PCHP group as a whole and with a subgroup of children who had been referred for severe developmental delays (SDD) removed. Among children eligible for free lunches, a significantly higher percentage of the non-SDD PCHP group passed the CSAB than did children statewide. A higher percentage of African American children in the non-SDD PCHP also passed, compared to those not receiving the program.
Length of post-intervention follow-up: 3 years

Madden, J., O’Hara, J., & Levenstein, P. (1984). Home Again: Effects of the Mother Child Home Program on mother and child. Child Development, 55, 636-647.

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of participants: 166 in four cohorts
Population:

Age Range: 21 to 33 months
Race/Ethnicity: 88% African American
Status (e.g., foster care, CW): Referred by public and private agencies, individuals and identified from school census lists for risk factors

Location/Institution: New York City
Summary: (To include comparison groups, outcomes, measures, notable limitations) Four separate cohorts of families were randomly assigned to receive the Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP) or to a comparison group. Three cohorts were compared to no-treatment controls, while the fourth was compared to a condition where materials were supplied, but not home visits. Criteria for participation were that the family must qualify for low-income housing and live in rented housing. In addition, neither parent have an education higher than 12th grade or a job at a level higher than semi-skilled. At baseline, the Cattell Developmental and Intelligence Scale was administered to three of the cohorts. After the intervention, mother-child interactions were scored by observation using the Maternal Interactive Behavior Record. Program specific performance was scored using a Program Achievement Test developed for the program. At 3-year follow-up, children were retested on the Stanford Binet Intelligence Test and the Reading and Arithmetic Scales of the Wide Range Achievement Test. Teachers also rated children’s behavior on the Child Behavior Traits measure, developed for the project. Short-term program effects included higher levels of desirable behaviors in maternal interactions and, in one cohort, higher scores on the Stanford Binet Test and the program-developed achievement test. There was no effect on IQ when the materials-only group was compared to the home-visited group. There were no effects in any cohort at 3-year follow-up, although IQ levels were near national norms in all groups. The authors suggest that the increased availability of preschool groups may have diluted program effects.
Length of post-intervention follow-up: 3 years

Levenstein, P., Levenstein, S., Shiminski, J.A., & Stolzberg (1998). Long-term impact of a verbal interaction program for at-risk toddlers: An exploratory study of high school outcomes in a replication of the Mother-Child Home Program. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 19(2), 267-285.

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of participants: 123 young adults
Population:

Age Range: 17-24 years
Race/Ethnicity: Unknown
Status (e.g., foster care, CW): Families of students attending Title One schools

Location/Institution: Pittsfield, MA
Summary: (To include comparison groups, outcomes, measures, notable limitations) Participants were young adults who had been randomly assigned at age 2 to either receive the Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP) or to be in a control group. The authors note that only a small number of participants were assigned to be controls, in order to maximize the number of families to benefit from the program. Families were required to have at least 5 of 8 identified risk factors: 1) Child’s IQ under 100, 2) single parent family, 3) unemployment of mother or father, 4) receiving Aid for Families with Dependent Children, 5) parents education under 12th grade, 6) income qualified for poverty status, or 7) older sibling in a remedial program. Participants who completed the PCHP program were significantly less likely to have dropped out of school and more likely to have graduated. With adjustment for baseline IQ scores, program enrollees continued to show an advantage over controls.
Length of post-intervention follow-up: 16 to 20 years.

Allen, L., Sethi, A. & Astuto, J. (2007). An evaluation of a toddlerhood home visting program at kindergarten age. NHSA Dialog, 10(1), 36-57.

Type of Study: Non-randomized comparison group
Number of participants: 116
Population:

Age Range: 2 to 3 at time of intervention
Race/Ethnicity: Intervention: 4.8% Caucasian, 9.5 % African American, 71.4% Latino, 14.3 % Other. Comparison Group: 26.5% Caucasian, 28.6% African American, 32.7% Latino, 12.2% Other.
Status (e.g., foster care, CW): Unknown

Location/Institution: Nassau and Suffolk Counties, New York
Summary: (To include comparison groups, outcomes, measures, notable limitations) The intervention group was 78 kindergarten-aged children who had participated in the Parent Child Home Program (PCHP). They were compared to children who had not participated in the program but were in the same classrooms. Measures were included to assess three indicators of school readiness: early literacy, social-emotional development, and parental involvement. Early literacy was measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and the Test of Early Reading Ability (TERA). Children were also rated by their teachers on the Academic Rating Scale from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. Social-Emotional Development was assessed with the Kochanska Inhibitory Control Battery and the Social Skills Rating Scale. Parental involvement was measured on the Family Involvement Questionnaire, with supplemental questions regarding parental support for children’s learning. Although the PCHP children went into the program at much higher risk of being unprepared for school, when assessed in kindergarten they showed no differences from the comparison group on social emotional skills or early literacy skills. However, some differences were noted on two standardized tests of verbal and literacy skill, which may be accounted for by the higher number of Latino children in the intervention group. Parents in the intervention group did not differ from the comparison group on likelihood to meet with teachers. However they were less likely to volunteer at school and to provide home-based activities for children’s learning.
Length of post-intervention follow-up: 2 to 3 years

Allen, L. & Sethi, A. (2004). Bridging the Gap Between Poor and Privileged; How the Parent-Child Home Program uses books and toys to help poor toddlers Succeed in Kindergarten and beyond. America Educator, 28(2), 34-56.

McGonigel, M. (2005). Replication in Practice: Lessons from five lead agencies. Zero to Three, 25(5), 9-16.