Parents play a crucial role in their children's development in early childhood and practitioners need to be trained to recognise this. This was one of the main findings from a new Oxford University research evaluation on the Early Learning Partnership Project (ELPP).
The researchers also found that practitioners involved in the project began to treat parents as equals.
The ELPP was set up by the Family and Parenting Institute on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families. The project explored different ways of encouraging vulnerable parents who might find engagement with their children difficult and struggle to get involved in early learning activities. It targeted children aged one to three who were at risk of learning delay.
Research consistently shows that parents who let their children play and who read to them give them a greater chance of doing well at school. Although this won't come as any surprise to many mothers, fathers and those who work with children, there are still some parents who don't understand that they can be their child's first teacher.
For those parents, it can simply boil down to the fact that their own parents never spent any time reading or playing with them - so doing something similar with their children now is totally alien. For others, it is because they don't have a strong relationship with their child, so they find even simple things like sharing playdough really difficult.
LEARNING TECHNIQUES
ELPP ran from October 2006 to March 2008. Over 8,000 children benefited as a result of the project. Nine voluntary organisations were involved in the project - Barnardo's, ContinYou, Coram, Family Welfare Association, Home Start, NCH, Pre-School Learning Alliance, Pen Green and Thurrock Community Mothers. Between them they used 12 different techniques to get parents thinking about their children's educational development (see box).
ELPP's other long-term goal was to get more of the early years workforce trained in early learning. Over 2,000 professionals from the private and voluntary sector, children's centres and local authority advisors received training in early learning.
BENEFITS
Oxford's research showed that the training was successful in helping practitioners gain skills and a new understanding about early learning, and that they were able to successfully share it with parents. It also found that continued development in the workplace was important to make the most of that training.
Another key part of ELPP was to work with hard-to-reach parents - that is, those that need the most help but, for one reason or another, do not get it. The Oxford study showed that it is possible to use projects that help parents play with their children as a way to work with vulnerable families who live in disadvantaged areas.
The evaluation found that parents involved in ELPP began to take a greater interest in their children's early learning and became more organised when it comes to family life; they take their children to necessary health appointments and have a tidier home.
Parents said they valued the enjoyment and benefits their child experienced as a result of their involvement in ELPP. They were also happy that they got the chance to mix and chat with other parents and that they developed new parenting skills and techniques, as well as ideas on how to be creative with their child's learning.
- Allan Watson is development co-ordinator at the Family and Parenting Institute
FURTHER INFORMATION
The full research report from Oxford University, a publication summarising the Family and Parenting Institute's findings and details on the 12 early learning techniques used can be found at www.familyandparenting.org/ELPP
WAYS OF WORKING
Twelve different techniques to get parents thinking about their children's educational development were devised under the Early Learning Partnership Project (ELPP). These are:
- Book Start
- Campaign for Learning
- Home-Start Listening and Learning with Children
- I CAN
- Newpin Family Play Programme
- One Plus One: Brief Encounters
- PAFT (Parents As First Teachers)
- PEAL (Parents, Early Years and Learning)/NCB
- PEEP (Peers Early Education Partnership)
- PICL (Parents' Involvement in their Children's Learning),
- Share
- Thurrock Community Mothers
CASE STUDIES
- Pen Green
As part of the ContinYou project in Bradford, Glynis Winterbottom and Azeema Rehman at the Abbey Green Nursery School and Children's Centre received training in the Pen Green approach. Pen Green trains staff in the 'Parents Involved in their Children's Learning' technique, which includes using video to analyse children's learning.
They said, 'We have enjoyed the Pen Green experience and feel we have learned a lot from it. Many of our families have talked about how their children were "well behaved" until they came to nursery and now they are "into everything". We would spend long periods of time reassuring these parents that it is a good sign for a child to be exploring their environment and that we had hopefully awakened that interest. Now with the video camera, parents can tell us the type of things their children enjoy at home and in this way we can learn together.
'One of the children, Khadaffi, who was obsessed with playing with water, was eager to watch the video he had made. He asked his Grandma and Grandad to sit back while he watched it first. He spoke to his grandparents in his mother tongue, Punjabi, saying, "What that? That Khadaffi!" Grandad asked him, "What are you doing?" He replied, "Pani (water)". Grandad began to talk to Grandma about how involved he was and pointing out how long Khadaffi had stayed in the water.'
- Home Start
In December 2007, Sally* was a single mother suffering from depression, which had caused a real problem for Sally interacting with her two small children. She was feeling isolated, and was in constant pain which sapped her energy. A Home Start volunteer with ELPP training was matched to Sally, and she began to make a huge difference.
Four months later, Sally has started to take her two children on regular trips to the library. Sally has realised that she does not have to do difficult things, but that just responding to her children, praising them and acknowledging their achievements has encouraged them to read, draw and get involved in creative activity.
Sally realises that she has helped create a happier home and a learning environment through play. Most important, she is enjoying the process. Her health visitor has commented on the changes in the family, saying Home Start's work has been 'inspirational'.
*names have been changed
- NCH North Solihull, dads' group
Before ELPP there was a lack of services just for dads and male carers in North Solihull. NCH worked to change that by putting on a wide range of activities specifically aimed at fathers and their children.
Workers at the NCH had to find innovative ways of recruiting fathers. They set up a website, printed posters and arranged advertising on beer mats. They even went as far as offering free professional photo-shoots for fathers and their children. It worked - over 500 dads and male carers joined in and reaped the rewards of the ELPP activities in North Solihull.
The biggest hit with the dads and male carers was a storytelling activity, which improved their interaction with their children and allowed them to tackle their children's problems through stories.
