Examining the longer-term impact of a home-visiting intervention program on the school readiness skills of English language learners in kindergarten

Young English Language Learners (ELL) present with varied profiles in their language and literacy development with parental involvement promoting development. The Home Instruction for Parents and Preschool Youngsters Program (HIPPY) is a free home-visiting intervention designed to empower parents to be their child’s first teacher. The current study examined the effectiveness of the HIPPY program on language, reading, and social/emotional skills of kindergarten aged ELLs. The HIPPY group was compared to an English as a first language group (EL1) and a control group of ELL students who did not participate in HIPPY (ESL). Participants were assessed at two time points, approximately eight months apart, to uncover differences in achievement across groups and over time. Students in the EL1 group preformed significantly better than the HIPPY and ESL groups on measures of English vocabulary at each time point. All the groups demonstrated improvement in scores from Time 1 to Time 2, however, the HIPPY group demonstrated the greatest improvement among the groups on narrative storytelling scores. Results are discussed in terms of the relationships between measures and the implications of the HIPPY program for promoting language development in young learners. Key words: English language learners, kindergarten, early literacy skill