"We Already Play": Exploring Head Start Families' Receptions of a Take-Home Play Bag Intervention

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 45
  In Roundtable Session: Family Engagement in Early Childhood

Abstract

The decline of in-home play between parents and young children is a problem, resulting in a breakdown in social emotional development (Ginsburg, 2007). These consequences are amplified for Head Start children and families facing multiple risk factors. Therein, effective in-home interventions to promote play among parents and children are needed. A small number of studies have begun to explore the efficacy of non-invasive parent-child engagement initiatives promoting in-home play of at-risk families (CITE ME). However, little is known about Head Start families’ perceptions (interpretation, acceptance, participation, and adoption) of these interventions. This paper presents a mixed methods study describing Head Start family’s perceptions of an intervention designed to promote in-home play, by providing convenient, culturally responsive, engaging in-home play bags.

Author

• Andrea Miller Emerson, Clemson University