Program Management

Role-Playing in HIPPY (Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters)

Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) is a program that provides parents with support and information to get their 3 -, 4 - or 5 - year old child ready for success in school. Parents are recruited based on need (due to income, education or language barriers). Each family is provided with weekly home visits and periodic family group meetings for 30 consecutive weeks each school year. Through HIPPY, parents have become more involved in their child's education in various ways, including more library visits, greater school volunteerism, and higher levels of involvement in PTA and other parent groups. Evaluation of parents' literacy in the Arkansas HIPPY program demonstrated that parents increased their reading level after participating in the program. A survey of Texas teachers, conducted by the Center for Parent Education, demonstrated that HIPPY children were better adapted to the classroom than their non-HIPPY peers. How is all this done? Through role-playing!

Home instructors, who are themselves current or former parents in the program, conduct the home visits and use role-playing as an instructional technique to train parents how to work with their children. This same technique is used in weekly staff training facilitated by the HIPPY coordinator. A tried and true method, role-playing provides paraprofessional home instructors and HIPPY parents with a safe learning environment in which to learn. This method can be adapted to many other adult learning situations with similar success.

The coordinator and home instructor role-play the entire 30-week HIPPY curriculum before the program begins. The focus of these role-play sessions is to train home instructors on the use and rationale for each of the activities in the HIPPY curriculum. Child development concepts, extension activities and adaptations are discussed after each activity is actually acted out by the staff. This simulation of the parent child episode allows staff to discuss abstract concepts within the context of specific child development activities. As each activity is role-played by a pair of home instructors, the others are observing and making notes to discuss with parents.

Each week, after role-playing the activity in a staff meeting, the home instructor takes the activity into each parents' home. There the HIPPY curriculum is role-playing in the following fashion:

• The environment is set to simulate the parent-child interaction. The table is cleared, materials are set out at child's eye level-the stage is set for learning.
• In the beginning, the home instructor takes on the role of parent, allowing the parent to take the role of child. This encourages the parent to reflect on how they think their child will react to the activity while simultaneously allowing the home instructor to model using the materials.
• At first there is a strong focus on technique-home instructor and parent closely follow a scripted outline which incorporates best practices for teaching young children. Some of the techniques used in HIPPY include repetition of the correct response, giving the child time to respond, pointing out pictures while reading, and transcribing children's answers verbatim. Once these techniques become second nature, the script becomes less important. The adult learner is allowed to proceed at their own pace, with the script available to them as they need it.
• As parents become more comfortable and skilled, they take on their role as parent and the home instructor takes on the role as child. This gives parents a leadership role, and allows the home instructor to make additional comments, suggestions, extensions and praise to the parent. Home instructors are trained to make errors the way a child might, thereby giving parents practice in how to respond when their child makes a mistake.

The technique of role-playing can be generalized and adapted to any adult learning situation. Keep the following in mind:

• Introduce concepts, vocabulary and context before the role-play commences.
• Offer scripted materials to the beginner, providing them with words to use and allowing them to learn by speaking.
• Have individuals repeat the role-play several times, this practice allows them to acquire and internalize concepts such as vocabulary and grammar in an intuitive way.
• Pair off partners at different levels, so that the beginning level learner has a script and the higher-level learner does not. This allows each to participate at their own level.

At the end of the role-play session, ask participants to provide feedback to each other. Model the provision of feedback, both positive and constructive suggestions.

Want to learn more about role-playing? The following resources can help: www.roleplayism.org/papers provides basic research information and sample role-play activities; http://www3.fablusi.com is a website which allows users to design their own role-play activity; and the Role-Play Book has role-plays designed for the ESL classroom in a ring bound format designed for photocopying.

Want more information about HIPPY? Call the Texas HIPPY Center, University of North Texas, 972-780-3617.

Carla-Marie Weir is a nationally recognized bilingual trainer who has helped over 25 communities across the nation implement a successful HIPPY program. As a volunteer with the National Cancer Society she was involved in the "Entre Amigas" project to encourage Hispanic women to engage in breast self examinations. She is married to an elementary school principal, and they are the proud parents of two young daughters, Hannah and Sofia.