Engaging and Retaining Culturally Diverse Families Through a Playful Learning Home-Based Intervention

• In Event: Closing the School Readiness Gap for Black and Latino Children: Start Early and at Home

Abstract

Purpose
For 50 years, PCHP has been providing high-quality home visiting services to the most at-risk families across the nation. With a commitment to assist in closing the achievement gap by providing low-income families in-home supports for their children from 16 months to 4-years of age, with a focus on school readiness skills to set children up for success. However, as the demand for demonstrating “gold standard” evidence-based results, this has raised questions to model fidelity, cultural adaptability, and cost.
Perspective
With increased federal fiscal attention to states that adopt evidenced-based programs, the need to conduct high-quality evaluations of programs is essential. Yet, as cultural and linguistic diversity in the US continues to grow, there is an equal concern for identifying interventions that work for our most vulnerable children—and these programs may not have the resources or infrastructure to engage in such a research endeavor. Thus, finding ways to bridge and integrate diverse methods and data to inform programmatic practices is a critical challenge for the early intervention field. As communities look for programs that intervene early for school success, we must consider how to demonstrate and document the impact of such services in meaningful ways.
Techniques
Trained community-based, bilingual early literacy specialists (ELS) work with families, providing twice weekly, 30-minute home-visits over a two-year period. Each week families receive an educational book/toy, often their first learning materials. Using materials, the specialist models for the parent and child together (e.g. reading, conversation, play activities) designed to stimulate parent-child interaction, develop language and literacy skills, and build school readiness.
Evidence
Currently, PCHP provides local services in over 12 states and internationally. Through evidence-based research, PCHP has demonstrated that they prepare low-income linguistically/racially diverse children and their families for school success.

Point of View
Although PCHP has demonstrated successes historically, the need for “gold standard” evidence of our model is needed. Through collaborative efforts in sites across the nation, we are beginning to learn more about the impact of PCHP; the limits and strengths of our internal evaluative practices and how the use of qualitative methods will generate a multi-faceted view of our program’s impact on children and families. Collaborative efforts with researchers are critical to our on-going success in reaching our service delivery goals.
Significance
This work has raised important lessons that include: 1) how to engage in and sustain high-quality research designs; 2) how to recruit, engage and retain the most vulnerable families; and 3) how to use early literacy specialists with a variety of educational and cultural backgrounds. As demographics across the nation shift, a key success of our model is the adaptability and cultural competency of our work. It is crucial for home-visitation models to engage in conversations with researchers, policy makers, and families from communities to be open to the continual refinement of a model to meet the needs and demands for ensuring high-quality programming. Sharing stories of our practitioner-research model will provide interesting and meaningful points of reference for other front-line service providers.

Author

• Cesar Zuniga, Parent Child Home Progran