Parental or family involvement in early childhood education is a term used to involve families in their child’s early education and form a strong partnership with their child care provider. It can also be the interest a parent shows in their children’s schooling by encouraging their children to do well in school, helping them with the schoolwork, appreciating when a child does well in school, talking with the teachers about the child’s progress among others.  This helps to make a significant positive impact on the child’s growth and development.

Family engagement in schools improves student achievement, reduces absenteeism, and restores parents’ confidence in their children’s education. Students with involved parents have better social skills, and show improved behavior. The most significant type of involvement is what parents do at home. By monitoring, supporting and advocating, parents can be engaged in ways that ensure that their children have every opportunity for success.

Family engagement is an essential component of high-quality early childhood care and education. Engaging families as partners early in the educational journey allows parents to establish strong home-school connections that support their children’s achievement long-term. Parent involvement is generally thought of as an avenue for promoting academic performance. However, parent involvement may also enhance children’s behavior at home and in the classroom as parents and teachers work together to enhance social functioning and address problem behaviors.

Parental involvement has a significant effect on pupil achievement throughout the years of schooling. Educational failure is increased by lack of parental interest in schooling. In particular, a father’s interest in a child’s schooling is strongly linked to positive educational outcomes for the child.

Involvement may vary from one family to another and can take different forms from communicating with teachers about children’s progress and helping children with homework, to participating in the school policy-making. By getting involved, parents can reduce children’s risk of failure and dropping out of school. Parental involvement improves children’s morale, attitudes and academic achievement across all subject areas. Children’s behavior and social adjustment improves when parents’ are proactive with schools and neighborhood to cultivate an environment that promotes learning.

Parental involvement in their children’s learning positively affects the child’s academic, socialization, greater cognitive competence, greater problem-solving skills, greater school enjoyment, better school attendance and fewer behavioral problems at school.

Involvement with reading activities at home has significant positive influences not only on reading achievement, language comprehension and expressive language skills but also on pupils’ interest in reading, attitudes towards reading and attentiveness in the classroom.

Children whose parents are involved show greater social and emotional development including more resilience to stress, greater life satisfaction, greater self-direction and self-control, greater social adjustment, greater mental health, more supportive relationships, greater social competence, more positive peer relations, more tolerance, and less delinquent behaviors.