Early intervention, home background and school success: Preliminary results of a longitudinal study

Abstract

In order to prepare children from disadvantaged backgrounds for primary education, early intervention programs are used. Generally, a distinction is made between home-based and center-based programs. In the research project described in this article, it is investigated whether there is a relation between participation in such programs and the educational achievements of 119 primary school pupils from two cities in the Netherlands. As Leseman (1992) suggests, the effectiveness of early intervention activities is partly determined by the family background of children taking part. An important aspect of family background seems to be the presence or lack of a literacy tradition. For this reason a parent questionnaire was developed which focused on 'home literacy environment': the extent to which parents themselves make use of written materials, and the way in which they provide their children with literacy-related experiences. In this article, preliminary outcomes on this work will be discussed.