Mary Wagner
Center for Education and Human Services
SRI International
The National Institute on Early Childhood Development and Education and three private foundations are funding the first multi-site evaluation of the Parents as Teachers (PAT) model of parenting education for families with young children. PAT programs have been implemented in more than 2,000 communities in 48 states and Australia. They provide families with home visits and information on child development and ways to encourage learning; group meetings with other parents to share experiences and gain new insights; screening of children's development for early detection of problems; and linkage with providers of needed services that are beyond the scope of the program.
The three-year evaluation, which employs a randomized experimental design, is being conducted by SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute) in collaboration with the Parents as Teachers National Center. This partnership will strengthen the linkage between findings of this evaluation and PAT program improvement and parent educator training. Participating communities include Newark, DE; Wichita, KS; Winston-Salem, NC; and Fort Worth, TX.
In addition to looking at several aspects of program implementation and program participation by enrolled families, the SRI evaluation is assessing a variety of parent and child impacts. Among them are parents' own literacy-related behaviors, language- and literacy-promoting behaviors regarding their young children, and children's language development.
The evaluation reflects the emphasis on children's language development that is evident in the PAT program. "PAT shows parents from their first interactions with their newborns, the importance of responding to the child's vocalizations and how to capture the teachable moments in everyday living to enhance language development. Involving babies with books from infancy on and helping children develop a love of stories is a part of every PAT program" (Winter and Rouse, 1991).
A variety of tools are being used to assess language- and literacy-related behaviors and outcomes. These tools are being employed by "field evaluators," who are hired, trained, and supervised by SRI to conduct assessments with participant and control group families in their homes at or around children's first, second, and third birthdays.
At each annual assessment, field evaluators interview parents to obtain background information on the families and their activities. The parent (usually the mother) is asked about her own literacy behaviors, (e.g., "About how often do you read a newspaper?" "Read a magazine?") and about relevant household activities (e.g., "About how much is the TV on in your house in a typical day?"). In addition, she is asked about activities an adult might engage in with her child at home (e.g., "About how often does someone in your household read to or look at books with your child?" "Tell stories, say nursery rhymes, or sing children's songs with your child?).
The parent is also asked about her knowledge of parenting practices and child development. The parenting knowledge questionnaire is tailored to the age of the child at each assessment and includes, among other topics, several agree/disagree statements regarding literacy and language development (e.g., "Babies aren't interested in books before the age of 1"; "Talking to a child about things he or she is doing helps the child's mental development."). In addition, field evaluators administer the HOME Inventory, from which a subscale has been created that includes items related to literacy (e.g., "Mother reads stories at least three times weekly," "Mother talks to child while doing her work.")
Children's language development is assessed when children are 2 years old using the communication subscale of the Development Profile (DP) II ( e.g., "Does the child use at least 40 different words when speaking?" "Does the child repeat parts of nursery rhymes or join in when others say them?") For 3-year-olds, the DPII is repeated, and children are administered the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test in either English or Spanish. Parents also are asked to report their child's understanding of letters of the alphabet and numbers, as indicators of emerging literacy and numeracy, using questions from the National Household Education Survey.
Analyses of these data will identify the impacts of PAT participation at different levels on parents' literacy-related behaviors and on children's language acquisition. The evaluation will address variations in the program's effectiveness for families and children of different backgrounds and for children whose parents exhibit different degrees of support for language and literacy development.
Findings from the recently begun evaluation will be available in 2000. For more information, please contact Mary Wagner at SRI International, (415) 859-2867
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