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Observation 1: Florida HIPPY

For my first observation, I was interested in working with Florida HIPPY, which stands

for Florida Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters. The HIPPY program itself is a

national program, with the national office located in Little Rock, Arkansas. I became aware of

this program due to working in the College of Behavioral & Community Sciences, and this is

where the Florida HIPPY office is located. I first got in contact with the Co-Director of Florida

HIPPY for Hillsborough County, Mr. Rampersad, and was then put into contact with another Co-

Director of Florida HIPPY for Hillsborough County. I spoke with the Co-Director of Florida

HIPPY, Dr. Payne, via telephone. We spoke for over an hour about the Florida HIPPY program,

its history, and participants. The conversation was very insightful and genuinely made me even

more curious about the program and all that it has to offer to parents, children, and families.

Florida HIPPY was established on the University of South Florida campus in 1996, and it

is an early intervention, home-based program geared toward increasing/influencing early

development (educational and motor skills) for pre-school age children. The actual instruction is

not provided by a home visitor, but by the parent who previously met with a home instructor

before teaching the lesson to their child. The home instructors that meet with the parent are

individuals who have previously participated in the Florida HIPPY program. The program

provides curriculum for 30 weeks, and twice a month home instructor’s visit with parents in their

homes to role play the curriculum packets. Parents then complete the curriculum packets with

their children and work on the packet five days a week for 15 to 20 minutes each day. The

curriculum is designed for each age group, children ages three to five years of age. It is also split

up into five sections: literacy, math, science, motor skills, and language. Parents also have the

opportunity to attend group meetings with other parents and children that are in the HIPPY
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program to meet with their home instructors, go through group enrichment activities, and also

discuss any successes or challenges that they may be facing.

After speaking with the Co-Director of Florida HIPPY, Dr. Payne, I was placed into

contact with the Training Coordinator for Home Instruction, Ms. Brinson and I was able to

schedule a time to observe a home visitation. I had the esteemed pleasure of working with a

home instructor, Ms. Castro who had been working with the program for the past 14 years, and

she was able to provide insight on how much the program has expanded over the years. At the

start of her working with HIPPY she mentioned that not many parents would sign up, but now

there is a waiting list of applicants eager to participate in HIPPY. The home visit was a great

experience. I was welcomed into a HIPPY parent’s home and was able to observe the home

instructor—parent relationship/interaction. The HIPPY Parent was at the conclusion of the 30-

week program, so she was able to share successes and challenges that her daughter was facing.

Before beginning role play, the home instructor spoke with the parent about how the previous

week’s curriculum went for her child. The HIPPY Parent shared that her daughter had a speech

impairment and struggled most often with the language portion of the curriculum. The HIPPY

Parent also shared that her daughter was learning English as a second language. I observed that

whenever the HIPPY parent would share an area of the curriculum that her daughter seemed to

struggle in, the home instructor would immediately provide a solution or suggest how the parent

could work with the child in that curriculum area. The home instructor performed the role play as

they went through a new week of the curriculum. This would occur by the home instructor going

through each of the five sections and demonstrating to the parent how each lesson was supposed

to be taught. This provided an opportunity for the HIPPY parent to ask questions. Also, the home

instructor and HIPPY parent would switch roles, where the HIPPY parent was teaching the home
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instructor about the lesson. This allowed for the parent to understand both roles as teacher and

student.

I previously had not had experience observing a home-based, early intervention program

such as HIPPY, which emphasized the importance of parent-child interaction with the parent

acting as the teacher, instead of the home instructor working directly with the child. In class

throughout the semester, we have discussed the effectiveness of home visiting based

programming, and it was nice to observe one in action. The Florida HIPPY program indicated

how essential the parent-child relationship is, especially in educational development among

young children. By having parents teach their children, it is fostering a positive learning

experience for the child and preparing them for school. The curriculum focused on developing

cognitive skills, problem-solving skills, and reading comprehension. Overall, my experience of

observing the Florida HIPPY program was positive, and I would be interested in working with

them, possibly in a research-based capacity.