Reading Together Significantly Benefits Children and Fathers in Low-Income Families
Jan 24, 2017 by Press Releases
Community program improves positive parental and child behaviors, and children’s language skills
WASHINGTON (January 23, 2016) – Teaching fathers of low-income families techniques of behavioral parenting training (BPT) and reading aloud improved behaviors of parents and children, as well as children’s language development, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, a journal of the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. The study demonstrates an effective intervention for engaging fathers to maximize parenting potential and encourage children’s learning.
“Unlike earlier research, our study finds that it is possible to engage fathers from low-income communities in parenting interventions, which benefits both the fathers and their children,” said Anil Chacko, associate professor of counseling psychology at NYU Steinhardt and the lead author of the study.
The study included 126 low-income, primarily Spanish-speaking fathers and their children, who were recruited from three Head Start centers in New York City. Participants were enrolled in Fathers Supporting Success in Preschoolers (FSSP), a community program for low-income families, or in a waitlist group. FSSP is an eight-week, 90-minute, group-based intervention. The highly interactive format used principles of dialogic reading, a technique that engages children in conversation during shared-reading, and also includes common elements of BPT, including labeled praise, effective commands, and the coping/modeling/problem-solving small group approach.
http://www.educationviews.org/reading-significantly-benefits-children-fathers-low-income-families/
