Evaluating the Incredible Years School Readiness Parenting Programme Kirstie Cooper
The IY School Readiness Programme • Address risk factors associated with children’s lack of readiness and poor home-school connections
• 4 sessions, 2 hours per week • Universal, delivered to parents through schools • Aims:
1. Improve children’s school readiness 2. Prevent conduct problems 3. Prevent academic underachievement 4. Enhance home-school links
Part 1 Child-directed play: Strengthening children’s social, emotional, and cognitive skills Emotion coaching to build emotional expression Building children’s self-esteem and creativity Teaching children to problem-solve Building children’s language skills
Part 2 Encouraging social, emotional, academic and problem solving skills through interactive reading Building children’s self-esteem and self-confidence in their reading ability Having fun with books Letting the child be the storyteller Using the Reading With CARE building blocks
Reading with CARE building blocks
C A R E
Commenting and describing Asking open-ended questions Responding with encouragement Expanding on what the child says
The Evaluation To establish: A battery of effective measures to assess children’s school readiness
The effectiveness of the new Programme in improving children’s school readiness Any difficulties or barriers in implementing the programme
Recruitment • 10 schools in North Wales • Schools allocated to Intervention and waiting-list Control on a ‘first come first serve’ basis
• Two staff at each school received training • Teachers recruited groups of up to 12 parents with children aged 3-5 years
• Intervention = 37
Control = 16
Group delivery & data collection • Groups run during school time (AM/PM) • 2 hours per week for 4 weeks
• Weekly supervision session with Prof. Hutchings • Three home visits to families (1 hour each) • Semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, direct observation, focus group
Demographics Personal Data and Health Questionnaire (PDHQ; Hutchings, 1996) Mean Child age
46 months
Primary caregiver age
33 years
Primary caregivers age when first child born
25 years
Primary caregivers age leaving school
17 years
Demographics % Child gender
52% boys
Caregiver gender
98% females
Biological parent
100%
Married / living together
81%
Very low income
36%
State benefits
25%
Child Behaviour Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997) • Parent report questionnaire
• 5 scales: emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention, peer relationship problems, and prosocial behaviour • Scores for each scale, total difficulties and impact
SDQ Total impact
Child Behaviour Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory (ECBI; Eyberg & Ross, 1978; Eyberg, 1980) • 36-item parent report measure • 7-point Intensity, measuring frequency of behaviours • Yes-No Problem, identifies whether parent perceives the behaviour to be a problem.
ECBI Total problems
Play and Reading Observation Tool (PAROT) • Direct Observation – 30 minutes • Part 1 – Child-directed play 15 minutes of observing the unstructured play between the primary caregiver and child. • Part 2 – Interactive Reading 15 minutes of observing the primary caregiver and child reading together. • One of three bilingual books used at each time point
PAROT - play Parent emotion coaching
PAROT - play Parent labelled praise
PAROT – play Child positive behaviours
PAROT – play Parent critical statements
PAROT – reading Parent open-ended questions
Home-School Relationship Qualitative/Quantitative Data Focus group • e.g. “What effect do you feel this programme has had on the relationship between the parents and your school?” Group Leader Evaluation / Parent Evaluation • Self-report questionnaire, rate on 5/6point Likert scale Parent Semi-structured Interview • e.g. “Has the programme had an effect on the relationship between you as a parent and the school?”
Attendance & Feedback • Mean number of sessions attended = 3 • 50% of parents attended all 4 sessions
• 90% of parents attended at least 2 sessions • How likely are you to run the programme again at your school in the future? Very likely = 4 Likely = 3
Costs / Time • Supply cover for teacher (£80 - £300 pw) • Refreshments etc. (£4 per week) • Room preparation time = 15/30/60 mins
• Session preparation time = 30/60/90 mins • Group time = 2 hrs, supervision = 2 hrs • Catch-up sessions = 0/30/60 mins
• Telephone calls = 20/30 mins
Diolch am wrando Thanks for listening
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