Coaching parents at home kept young children keen to learn six years later

The study

1. 01

   Who took part

   200 children at Head Start preschools in Pennsylvania, USA, about 4 years old on average, and their parents or carers. Most families were poor; 95 got home visits and 105 did not.

2. 02

   What they did

   Home visitors made 16 visits across the end of preschool and the start of kindergarten. They brought story and play boxes for reading together. They coached parents to give clear praise, talk about feelings and solve problems with the child. Families had about 12 visits on average. The other families got four monthly packs of simple maths games by post. All children also had a classroom programme at Head Start.

3. 03

   What happened

   In fifth grade, researchers rated children from the home-visit group as more keen to learn. In the other group this dropped between third and fifth grade, but in the home-visit group it held steady. Teachers rated home-visit children a bit more driven at school, but this result was borderline. A few numbers differ slightly between the paper's text and tables.

What the study found

1. Helped

   Children whose parents had coaching visits at home stayed more keen to learn six years later than the other group.

   • Rule: With a coach or therapistused

   Randomised trial of 200 low-income preschoolers and their parents · vs families sent simple maths games by post · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ numbers unreliable

2. Helped

   Teachers rated these children only a bit more driven at school by fifth grade, a borderline result.

   • Rule: With a coach or therapistused

   Randomised trial of 200 low-income preschoolers and their parents · vs families sent simple maths games by post · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ numbers unreliable

Source