Home Instruction for Parents and Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) Program to be Launched in China and Korea

JERUSALEM, March 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the technology-transfer company of the Hebrew University, announced today that it has signed an agreement with Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network (ASDAN) China and Lolo Educational Services Co. (LES), Korea for the entrance of it its wholly-owned Home Instruction for Parents and Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program into China and Korea.

HIPPY is an early learning program which has seen extraordinary results in helping parents take the role of their child's first teacher. HIPPY, which partners with parents to prepare their children for success in school, is a thriving international program closing the achievement gap at 440 program sites, reaching 20,000 families, in 10 countries including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Israel, Liberia, New Zealand, and the US. HIPPY-inspired programs operate in Denmark, Finland, Holland, Sweden and Turkey.

What makes the HIPPY early-learning program so unique is that the focus is on empowering parents. Paraprofessional home visitors from the community, who are well-versed in the curriculum materials, work directly with parents of 3, 4 and 5-year-olds, who are then asked to engage with their children using the educational activities they have just learned. HIPPY relates sensitively to the communities it serves, providing materials in the language preferred by the parents and community and encourages the production and use in each country program of native language and/or bilingual story-books and materials.

In China and Korea, the HIPPY model described above was expanded and transformed in order to better serve upper and middle class populations. The basic idea of working with the parents in order to prepare their children for preschool still remains, but here professional teachers will train the parents, and the goal is to bring the children to a higher level, so that they can excel in school. In the case of China and Korea, the curriculum will also be adapted to culturally fit these countries. In Korea the program will begin with a pilot for 6 months, and localization and modification work will be done during this period. One hundred parents are expected to participate in the pilot at 3 sites in Seoul. Following the pilot stage, the official launch of the program is planned for late summer of this year.

Dr. Miriam Westheimer, Director, HIPPY International, said, "HIPPY has been steadily growing worldwide over the last 10 years.  South Korea and China are the first programs in Asia where we will be adapting the core program model for a very different and more highly educated consumer.  It is coincidental that the two new countries will start at the same time and we will use this exciting opportunity to enrich the HIPPY International network."

DJ Dongjun Lee, Chief Executive Officer, Lolo Educational Services Co., Korea, commented, "We were very impressed by the proven added value that HIPPY offers in preparing children for school and studies. I hope HIPPY can help Korean parents to better understand the benefits and importance of their involvement in their children's education and that our partnership will bring a new wave of parent involvement to the Korean education market."  

Yichan Yuan, Chief Executive Officer, ASDAN China, stated, "Today, we declared our commitment to work together with HIPPY to help preschool children reach high-quality education at home, benefiting them in the long-run. As a country with a large population, there are currently millions of preschool children in China. Parents are willing to prepare their children for school by educating them at home, however, lack of informative guidance makes it extremely difficult for them to succeed in this task. The collaboration between HIPPY and ASDAN China will provide parents with the support and information they need in order to help their children excel in school. We believe that this initiative can have a big impact on education of children in China."

Research has shown that children who participated in the HIPPY program as a 3-, 4-, or 5-year-old appear to have benefited long-term from the experience. Research also suggests that the HIPPY program intervention can increase school achievement and build a strong base for school success. More research information can be found at http://www.hippyresearchcenter.org/index.php

Yaacov Michlin, President and CEO of Yissum, added, "We are very pleased with our first licensing agreement in China based on innovation of research performed at the Hebrew University. This is an excellent example of a successful technology transfer deal from academia to the commercial and educational arenas. As the organization in charge of protecting the intellectual property and commercializing the inventions originating from the University, we have in our arsenal many promising and breakthrough technologies in a wide range of fields including biotechnology, agriculture, new materials and nanotechnology, computer science and cybersecurity and many more. We hope that the agreements announced today mark the beginning of a long and fruitful business partnership with companies and organizations in East Asia."      

About HIPPY 

Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters - known as HIPPY - partners with parents to prepare their children for success in school, particularly those most at risk because of poverty, limited education and language proficiency. HIPPY is an evidenced-based family support model that works directly with parents in their homes to give them books, activities and skills needed for them to take responsibility for preparing their children for school. Peer parent educators deliver 30 weeks of high quality school readiness curriculum activities and books directly to parents each year, who then work each day with their own three, four and five year old children.

The program originated in 1969, and was developed by Dr. Avima D. Lombard, a researcher at the NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who started an early education program in Israel that aimed to teach parents with limited formal education to be their children's first teachers. The premise behind HIPPY was that early education is critical to a child's learning and helps prepare very young children from low-income families to better succeed in school. For further information, please visit http://hippy-international.org/

About Yissum 

Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Ltd. was founded in 1964 to protect and commercialize the Hebrew University's intellectual property. Products based on Hebrew University technologies that have been commercialized by Yissum currently generate $2 Billion in annual sales. Ranked among the top technology transfer companies in the world, Yissum has registered over 9,325 patents covering 2,600 inventions; has licensed out 880 technologies and has spun out 110 companies including Mobileye, Briefcam, Orcam, Avraham Pharmaceuticals, Betalin Therapeutics, CollPlant and Qlight Nanotech. Yissum's business partners span the globe and include companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Roche, Merck, Teva, Syngenta, Monsanto and many more. For further information please visit http://www.yissum.co.il.

About Lolo Educational Services Co. (LES) 

Located in Seoul, Korea, LES is an educational contents provider. The company develops and provides parenting resources via social networking system and educational programs for academies and groups. 

About Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network (ASDAN) 

ASDAN is a charitable social enterprise, endorsed by the British Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). ASDAN China, the branch in China, currently cooperates with 192 international schools and key schools in 52 cities. Up until 2015, more than 20,000 students have participated in ASDAN China programs which connect after-class activities with school classes, and aim to help schools improve their overall extracurricular activities, by providing students with high quality educational resources. For more information, please visit http://www.seededu.cn/index_en.jsp

Media Contact:
Tsipi Haitovsky
Global Media Liaison, Yissum Ltd.
Tel: +972-52-598-9892
E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Yissum