PARENTS HEARING THEIR CHILDREN READ - A REVIEW - RETHINKING THE LESSONS OF THE HARINGEY PROJECT

This paper reports a review of over 40 studies of parents hearing thei r children read at home. It draws a distinction between 'parent traini ng' studies and 'parent listening' studies. The former involve explana tion and modelling, as well as monitoring and correction of parent tea ching behaviours. The latter involve only explanation, but without mon itoring and correction. It is argued that the success of the widely kn own and influential Haringey Project, a parent listening study, has be en quite misleading. Four other parent listening studies in the Haring ey tradition have failed to show significant effects on children's rea ding test scores. By contrast, a substantial number of parent training studies involving parents of poor readers have produced significant e ffects. The only parent listening studies to show this kind of success have involved families of poor readers. It is argued that the widespr ead practice of schools sending home books for parents to hear their c hildren read does little to help children most at risk of reading fail ure: low competence readers whose parents do not realize how much bene fit their help can be, or who do not know how to help. The parent trai ning studies have shown how to bring about substantial improvements in poor readers' interest in and enthusiasm for reading and their readin g competence.