Increasing Latino Parents’ Verbal Interactions with Their Preschool-Aged Children

Sabina Gesell,Dan Wallace,Tommaso Tempesti,Shari Barkin,Vanessa Hux

doi:10.5402/2012/652406

Sabina Gesell, Dan Wallace + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.5402/2012/652406

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Abstract

The rapidly growing Hispanic American population is experiencing an academic achievement gap that seems to be rooted in disparities in early childhood education and literacy development. Children of non-English-speaking immigrant parents are at greatest risk of poor school performance, but there is potential to capitalize on immigrants’ drive by encouraging them to engage with their children in dialog while reading native-language storybooks. This paper reports on a community-based randomized controlled trial () delivered to mostly Mexican immigrant parents of preschool-age children. Intervention group parents attended three monthly 60-minute sessions based on the Dialogic Reading Model—C.A.R. (Comment and Wait, Ask Questions and Wait, and Respond by Adding More), which teaches parents to have a conversation about pictures in books, with the goal of enhancing verbal exchanges with the child in the parent’s native language. After the 3-month intervention, parents in the bilingual early language development intervention reported placing greater value on children’s active verbal participation in reading compared to control group parents who participated in a healthy lifestyle intervention. These results suggest that Hispanics’ educational outcomes may be improved by educating parents on the value of playful conversations with young children while reading books in one’s native language.

Highlights

Immigration from Latin America has drastically altered the demographic makeup of the United States in recent years
We implemented a community-based, family-centered, healthy lifestyle randomized controled trial (RCT), Salud con la familia (Health with the Family), with an alternative early childhood literacy intervention. Both treatment arms were designed for Latino families with preschool-aged children and were conducted in a public community center guided by principles of communitybased participatory research (CBPR)
The results of this study showed that parental involvement in a brief bilingual literacy intervention based in a community setting is effective in improving the value Latino immigrant parents place on their children’s active participation in joint reading over a 3-month period

Summary

Introduction

Immigration from Latin America has drastically altered the demographic makeup of the United States in recent years. Nearly one out of every five students in the US is Hispanic, and when coupled with the fact that 21 percent of those students fail to graduate from high school—a rate four times that of their white peers—the need to make improvements demands even more immediate attention [1]. This statistic has prompted many questions and the need for a solution to addressing the “consistent pattern of underachievement” shown by Hispanic student with respect to educational attainment [2]

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