Why is Parent Involvement Important in Early Education?

According to the Harvard Family Research Project, parental involvement are activities that parents conduct at home and in early childhood settings to directly or indirectly support their child’s learning. The same goes for caregivers as well. Whoever is taking care of the child should focus on creating this relationship as it helps extend the child’s learning outside of the classroom and creates a bond which extends to adolescence. This means, through parental involvement, your child is equipped to perform better at school and make better life decisions.

Compiled together from multiple studies, underneath are examples of why parental involvement is important and how it can be accomplished.

1) Why is it important for children?
According to studies:
- children achieve more, regardless of ethnic or racial background, socioeconomic status, or parents’ education level
- children achieve better grades, test scores, and attendance
- children have better self-esteem, are more self-disciplined, and show higher motivation toward school.

So, what do you do to achieve this for your child?
You don’t need the best educational toy but you do need to spend time with your child working on educational activities. Something as simple as, singing a song about what you are doing while giving a bath to your child is an example of spending educational time with your child.

2) Why is it important for parents?
According to studies:
- you become more confident in your parenting/decision-making skills
- you gain more knowledge of your child’s development, which provides an increased use of positive reinforcement and less use of punishment on your child
- you have a better understanding of the teacher’s job, the school’s curriculum, and their effectiveness

So, what do you do to achieve this for yourself?
You don’t need to spend a ton of money on the newest toys and apps, but do invest in resources that give you examples of the educational activities that build this relationship and foundation. Something as simple as a picture book or a text message can go a long way in guiding you.

3) Why is it important for schools and teachers?
According to studies:
- schools experience better community support as they usually do better and have higher quality programs than programs that do not have involved parents
- teachers and principals often earn greater respect for their profession from the parents,
- school personnel and the parents both attain higher satisfaction and trust each other more

So, what do you do as a school/teacher to achieve this?
- invest in providing parents the opportunities/resources for parental involvement

- incentivize parents to spend the necessary educational time with their children. There are many platforms that can accomplish this deed for schools, so partnering up with one program would be the easiest way to go.

Parental involvement is critical as it helps extend teaching outside the classroom, creates a more positive experience for children and helps them perform better when they are in school. So, make sure to spend some time doing your homework to find the best tool to help you get more involved; whether you are a parent, a teacher, or a school.