A Promising Start: An Evaluation of the HIPPY Program in New Zealand

Three studies were carried out to investigate the impact of participation in the Home Instruction Programme for Preschool and Year One Youngsters (HIPPY) on New Zealand children's reading ability, school readiness and school behaviour. In study 1, scores on a Reading Diagnostic Survey were obtained for 77 six‐year‐old HIPPY children and 704 six‐year‐old non‐HIPPY children. In study 2, 29 HIPPY children who had recently entered school and 29 control children were assessed using four subsections of the Metropolitan Readiness tests. In the third study the Behavioural Academic Self Esteem Scale (BASE) was completed by teachers for the HIPPY and control children in study 2 as well as all their classmates. HIPPY children were found to show consistently better performance on all of the measures used and the differences reached statistical significance on three of the six sub‐tests of the Reading Diagnostic Survey and the BASE scale.