Testing Bronfenbrenner’s theory of parent-program communication: Parental homework as a form of family involvement in early care and education

Bronfenbrenner’s theory predictsthat children’s development will be enhanced if parents and early care andeducation programs interact in concert, working in mutually reinforcing ways inboth settings. A novel way ofpromoting this consistency was tested, homework given to preschool parents (toread to their children using the dialogical reading method). An earlier report foundsignificant impacts of the parent homework intervention on children’s languagedevelopment. The current study looked inside that intervention, to see if theparents in the experimental group actually increased their overall amount or changedtheir type of parent involvement with the program, as compared to control groupparents. Results show that the preschool parental homework led to a shift inthe content of parent-teacher communications, significantly increasing thepercentage of such communications that were about the specific child and waysof interacting with that child, as opposed to communications about the childcare program in general. The findings suggest that parents can respond well tohomework from their child care program, this homework can contribute to a shiftin the nature of teacher-parent communications, and can have significant impactson child development.