Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY)^®

Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) aims to support parents and caregivers as their children’s first teacher. The model is designed for parents who want to gain confidence in their ability to teach their children and prepare them for success. In particular, HIPPY aims to work with parents facing challenges that could hinder their ability to provide quality preschool education to their child, such as having limited formal education, limited English proficiency, or limited financial resources. HIPPY offers weekly, hour-long home visits for 30 weeks per year and two-hour group meetings at least six times per year. HIPPY sites are encouraged to offer the four-year program option 2- through 5-year-olds but must offer at least a two-year program option. The home visitors are typically drawn from the same population that a HIPPY site serves, and each site is staffed by a professional coordinator who oversees implementation and supervises the home visitors.

For more information, see the research database. For more information on the criteria used to rate research, please see details of HomVEE’s methods and standards.

Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) is a home visiting model that focuses on parent-involved and parent-directed early learning. HIPPY services are offered to parents, who then work with their own 2- through 5-year-old children. HIPPY’s mission is to help parents prepare their children for success in school and beyond. The model supports parents as their children’s first teacher by providing them the tools, skills, and confidence to teach their young children in the home.

The national network of HIPPY (HIPPY US) helps state and local communities implement and sustain HIPPY affiliate sites in the United States. The national network provides training and technical assistance, develops all HIPPY materials, enhances the HIPPY model, oversees and ensures model fidelity, collects national data, advocates for policy and practice, and coordinates research.

HIPPY US national trainers contact their assigned affiliate sites monthly to discuss progress and provide assistance in solving implementation issues. Five states (Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, and Texas) have official, designated HIPPY state offices, which provide affiliate sites in their state with training and technical assistance, fidelity monitoring, evaluation and research, resource development, strategic alliances, and advocacy efforts. The national network provides these services for affiliate sites in states without HIPPY state offices.

New programs receive two site visits from a HIPPY US national trainer. The initial site visit occurs before the program starts; a follow-up visit is conducted approximately mid-year. These visits include home visitor training, orientation with agency administrators and collaborators, assistance with public relations events, and on-site professional coordinator training.

Existing programs receive regular site visits that are designed to troubleshoot programmatic issues, offer training to professional coordinators and home visitors, and provide an overall assessment of the program (ensuring that the program is being implemented with fidelity to the HIPPY model). Trainers provide ongoing communication to the sites leading up to the visit and prepare a report that includes recommendations and action plans for quality improvement.

HIPPY is designed for parents and caregivers* who want to gain confidence in their ability to teach their children and fully prepare them for success. In particular, HIPPY aims to work with parents facing challenges that could hinder their ability to provide quality preschool education to their child, such as having limited formal education, limited English proficiency, or limited financial resources. 

HIPPY serves parents with children ages 2 through 5 years.

*Throughout the rest of this profile, the term “parent” refers to both parents and caregivers.

The HIPPY model includes five required components:

1. A developmentally appropriate school readiness curriculum. HIPPY includes four separate curricula: Little Learners (Age 2) and HIPPY Age 3, Age 4, and Age 5. Each curriculum is structured as lesson plans that use storybooks, learning exercises, and activities to expand children’s literacy and language development, social and emotional development, and problem-solving skills. Parents are trained to use the relevant curriculum through weekly visits with peer home visitors; parents and children are instructed to spend 15 to 20 minutes a day together completing the activities. In addition, HIPPY has an optional Bridge Curriculum for parents to continue to engage with their children during vacation periods.
2. One-on-one weekly home visits. The home visitor works to build lasting relationships with the family by offering individual training in the family’s home. Home visits and group meetings strive to address the educational, social, and personal needs of enrolled families.
3. HIPPY group meetings. Meetings are designed to provide social experiences for children and adults, expose participants to new concepts, and allow parents to find solutions to common challenges through information and resource sharing. Group meetings also foster active engagement in the program, especially when extended family members participate. 
4. Role play as the method of instruction in the curriculum. Role play allows parents to discuss the purpose of individual activities, reflect on their own and their child’s learning needs, and develop new teaching skills. The use of role play is designed to create a non-threatening learning environment in which mistakes are accepted, and to support parents with any level of education in their efforts to become more effective as their children’s first teacher.
5. Peer home visitors and professional coordinators. Staffing structure includes peer home visitors from the community in which the family is being served and professional coordinators with sensitivity to the needs of vulnerable families.

The first home visit serves recruitment and retention purposes. HIPPY US recommends that the professional coordinator conduct the first home visit with a family to provide a comprehensive overview of the program, describe the commitment the program is making to the family, and explain the commitment required of the family. During the initial visit, the professional coordinator considers which of the program’s home visitors would be the best fit for the family.

HIPPY affiliate sites deliver the curriculum over 30 weeks each year, usually during the months that correspond with a typical school year. During this period, families are offered weekly home visits and at least six group meetings. Home visits typically last one hour and group meetings last two hours.

The four HIPPY curricula are separate and independent of each other; however, each builds upon the skills from the preceding curriculum. HIPPY US highly recommends that parents complete each age curriculum sequentially, and thus, that affiliate sites offer the full four-year program option, serving 2- through 5-year-olds. At a minimum, affiliate sites must implement at least two consecutive years of HIPPY curricula.

HIPPY US permits some flexibility with the model in cases where adaptations are deemed necessary due to local conditions; however, it requires that all affiliate sites adhere to core elements that are essential to effective programming. HIPPY US must review and approve all adaptations. Technical assistance is provided to guide local affiliate sites in determining which adaptation should be implemented and the method of implementation, and to promote efficacy and model integrity.

Examples of adaptations include:

• Approaches that honor family and community values;
• Approaches that foster safety and delivery in alternative living environments;
• Approaches that consider the pace of parenting education;
• Approaches that modify the extent to which verbal and nonverbal communication strategies are used; and
• Approaches that modify the extent or method of service delivery in emergency situations.

HIPPY programs are operated by a variety of institutions and agencies that include hospitals, universities, school districts, preschool programs, education cooperatives, departments of health and education, housing authorities, child welfare agencies, Head Start programs, and other community-based organizations serving diverse populations and seeking to address the societal challenges affecting families and communities.

The HIPPY Excellence: Model, Guidance, Requirements, and Accreditation manual establishes standards by which all affiliate sites are assessed. These standards reflect the essential elements that are fundamental to replicating and implementing the HIPPY model with fidelity. They define the performance expectations, structures, and processes that must be in place to achieve fidelity to the model. Please contact the model developer for additional information about these standards.

HIPPY US requires that HIPPY affiliate sites have two primary staff positions: (1) peer home visitors, who deliver the curriculum to their assigned parents each week, and (2) a full-time professional coordinator, who oversees the day-to-day implementation of the HIPPY program, supervises home visitors, plans and organizes group meetings, and provides ongoing coaching to the home visitors. Affiliate sites must also have an organizational supervisor who oversees the professional coordinator.

HIPPY US requires professional coordinators to have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, elementary education, family or adult education, social work, or a related field. Professional coordinators must also have strong training, leadership, communication, organizational, and administrative skills, as well as knowledge of the needs and interests of families in underserved communities. A member of the program community is preferred.

HIPPY US requires that home visitors be recruited from the target community and have a child of HIPPY-appropriate age or have access to a child with whom they can engage in the HIPPY curriculum to practice and master their skills. Home visitors must have a minimum of a high school diploma, but HIPPY US encourages affiliate sites to require some form of postsecondary education, such as a Child Development Associate credential, an associate’s degree, or a bachelor’s degree.

Professional coordinators are responsible for the ongoing supervision and training of home visitors. HIPPY US requires that professional coordinators create and update a professional development plan for each home visitor that includes, but is not limited to, overall performance and short- and long-term career goals. Professional coordinators are required to provide weekly, ongoing supervision for home visitors that includes review of required paperwork and professional development plans and comprehensive discussions about general home visiting challenges. Professional coordinators observe each home visitor three times a year. Although these observations primarily serve supervision purposes, professional coordinators are trained and encouraged to address any areas of service delivery that are not being implemented with fidelity.

HIPPY US expects that the professional coordinator’s organization will provide the professional coordinator with supervision and support. The organizational supervisors are required to attend the portion of the professional coordinators pre-service training focused on supervision. The state HIPPY offices or the director of the independent sites (sites operating in states where there is no state office) provide ongoing support to professional coordinators through meetings, trainings, visits, webinars, and one-on-one communications.

Home visitors are required to participate in three days of on-site training. For new programs, the training is conducted by a national trainer; in subsequent years, the professional coordinator provides the training utilizing the same training modules and concepts. HIPPY US requires professional coordinators to complete the multiday HIPPY pre-service professional coordinator training successfully before starting a new program or taking on the coordination of an existing program. HIPPY US requires organizational supervisors to complete the supervision part of the coordinators' pre-service training within one year of joining an affiliate site. Please contact the model developer for additional information about the pre-service training requirements.

Professional coordinators are required to hold weekly in-service staff meetings for home visitors during which they model and discuss the educational concepts and activities in the upcoming week’s lesson and challenges that home visitors might experience when serving families. The home visitors role-play the week’s lesson under the direction of the professional coordinator.

HIPPY US requires that professional coordinators and home visitors receive at least 15 hours of comprehensive job-related training annually. Affiliate sites must ensure staff have access to trainings and professional development, including those offered internally, statewide, or through HIPPY US. At the affiliate’s discretion, the 15-hour minimum requirement can include professional development offered at the HIPPY US national conference, which provides attendees with a minimum of 12 to 15 hours of professional development and educational workshops. Please contact the model developer for additional information about the ongoing professional development requirements.

HIPPY US

Email: info@hippyus.org
Website: hippyus.org