Messages from research

Parenting behaviour influences children's development from the moment of birth

  • Children from disadvantaged backgrounds show less ability as early as 22 months.
  • The link between disadvantage and achievement is cumulative. Despite early indications of potential, more able children from disadvantaged backgrounds are predicted to fall behind less able children from less deprived backgrounds.
  • The level of maternal education has a particularly marked effect on parental involvement in early learning and child development. However, in home environments where mothers provided more stimulation and teaching, child development on all measures was generally higher, regardless of maternal education level or economic circumstance.

Feinstein 2003, 2004

The influence of the home is 'enduring, pervasive and direct'

  • What parents do at home has a significant positive effect on children's achievement and adjustment even after all other factors shaping attainment have been taken out of the equation.
  • Children gain skills at home, but also absorb a positive attitude to, and enthusiasm for, learning.
  • Parental involvement has a positive impact across all ethnic groups and social classes.
  • In the primary age range, parental involvement has a greater impact on achievement than the quality of the school.

Desforges, 2003

What parents do is more important than who they are

  • For all children, the quality of the home learning environment is more important for intellectual and social development than parental occupation, education or income.
  • Parents' involvement in their children's early learning at home has continued significant positive benefits on attainment and social behaviour at ages 7, 10 and 11.
  • Children whose parents regularly engage in home learning activities are less likely to be assessed for special educational needs.
  • The quality of the home learning environment provided by families from some minority ethnic groups has an even stronger relationship to children's achievement than would be expected compared to other groups and given their socio-economic status and other background characteristics.
  • Fewer boys than girls are engaged by their parents in play and early learning activities in the home.

Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project, Sylva et al 2004 and 2008

Fathers have an important role to play

  • Children whose fathers are involved in their learning do better at school and have better mental health, even after controlling for fathers' socio-economic status and education.
  • Fathers' lack of interest in schooling is a particularly strong predictor of lack of qualifications.

Buchanan, 2001 and Hobcraft, 1998

It is possible to engage vulnerable parents and improve the home learning environment

  • Parents in the programme demonstrated significant improvements in parenting in terms of:
    • organising activities for their children
    • taking children's needs into account
    • engagement in activities to support their child's learning.
  • Parents in the programme reported positive changes in their own parenting, including:
    • more active involvement with their children
    • seeing themselves as their child's first educator
    • providing social experiences for their children
    • spending more time with their children
    • demonstrating more emotional warmth.
  • Parents in the programme noticed positive changes in their children's behaviour, including:
    • developmental progress
    • social progression
    • improved comprehension
    • more secure attachment.
Evaluation of Early Learning Partnerships Project (ELPP), Evangelou et al 2008

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Last updated: 20th November 2009 at 03:11:48