Evaluating the Incredible Years School Readiness Parenting Programme

Evaluating the Incredible Years School Readiness

Parenting Programme

Supervised byDr Tracey Bywater

Incredible Years WalesSchool of Psychology

Kirstie Cooper

Presentation Content• What is “school readiness”?• The School Readiness Programme• The evaluation• Aims• Method• Progress to date

What is ‘School Readiness’?

• No concrete definition

• Preacademic knowledge e.g. numbers, letters, colours predict school readiness. (Forget-Dubois et al., 2007, Lemelin et al., 2007)

• Cognitive skills, such as executive functions and memory, are better predictors of school readiness (Blair, 2006)

Multi-dimensional construct:– Children’s engagement in learning– Emotion regulation– Communication and language skills– Social competence– Pre-literacy skills– Physical well-being– Academic knowledge and cognition

What is ‘School Readiness’?

The IY School ReadinessProgramme

• More children arrive in school without social and self-regulatory skills

• Low academic achievement and poor relationships

• The IY School Readiness Programme was developed to address risk factors associated with children’s lack of academic readiness and poor home-school connections

(Webster-Stratton, 2004)

6

6

Teacher Programme6 full day sessions held monthly

Child Dinosaur treatment18 – 22 sessions6 children

Child Dinosaur Classroom 2 sessions per wk30 weeks

Fully revised ADVANCED 9 sessions helping adults communicate & problem solve

Fully revised School Aged BASIC12 sessions 6 - 12 years

Fully revised Pre-School BASIC 18 sessions 3 - 6 years

School Readiness4 sessions 2 - 5 years

Infant 8 sessions 0 - 12 monthsToddler 13 sessions 1 - 2 years

The Incredible Years Programmes

• 4 sessions delivered to parents through schools• Designed to help parents with their child’s

transition to full-time school• Universal programme• The ultimate aims are to:

1. Improve children’s school readiness2. Prevent conduct problems and academic

underachievement3. Enhance home-school links

The School Readiness Programme

Child-directed play: Strengthening children’ssocial, 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 1

Part 2Encouraging 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

Commenting and describing

Asking open-ended questions

Responding with encouragement

Expanding on what the child says

Reading with CARE building blocks

CARE

• The IY Basic Parent & TCM Programmes have been successfully delivered and researched across Wales

• These programmes do not specifically address the dimensions of school readiness

• The IY School Readiness Programme has never been researched

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

Aims

1. Does the programme benefit all children and parents?

2. For which children and families is the intervention most effective?

3. What are the environmental/contextual circumstances that improve the likelihood of success?

4. When is the best time to run the programme?

Research Questions

Phase 15 schools in Gwynedd (4 intervention, 1 control*) Schools recommended by Gwynedd EducationRecruited 26 parents

Phase 27 schools in Gwynedd (5 intervention, 2 control*) Currently recruiting parents Aim 46 parents

*Waiting-list control

Method (i) Participants

Inclusion criteria for recruiting parents:

• Parent has child aged 3 - 4 starting nursery class in Sept 2010

• The parent targeted must be the primary caregiver• Parents able to attend parenting programme for

4 weeks (2 hrs / week)• Parent agree to be visited by research team and

complete measures

Method (i) Participants

• Pre-test Post-test Nonequivalent Group design

• Intervention and control groups compared

• Groups assigned by cluster on a ‘first come first serve’ basis rather than by randomisation

• First 4 schools to sign up allocated to intervention

• Cross-over design, control become intervention

Method (ii) Design

Two members of staff at each school trained to deliver the programme (1 full day training)

Recruitment of parents:• Participating schools give posters / info sheets to all

families of 3 - 4 year old nursery class children• Parents invited to attend the course and participate

in the evaluation• A researcher to conduct an initial home visit

Method (iii) Procedure

Method (iii) Procedure Programme delivery: Phase 1 Phase 2

Intervention schools Sept 2010 March 2011

Control schools March 2011 Sept 2011

• 2 hours per week for 4 weeks• 2 school staff to run the programme while

children are in class• Group leaders receive weekly supervision

Data Collection: Home visits to families

Phase 1 Phase 2

Baseline visit Aug/Sept 2010 Feb 2011Follow-up 1 Jan/Feb 2011 June 2011Follow-up 2 May/Jun 2011October 2011

• 1 hour: Semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, direct observation

• Family given a book for their child as thank you

Method (iii) Procedure

Semi-structured interviewDemographics (PDHQ)

Questionnaires Child Behaviour (SDQ, ECBI)Parent Competency (PSOC)

Direct Observation (PAROT)

Home Measures

Direct ObservationPlay and Reading Observation Tool (PAROT)• Part 1 – Child-directed play

15 mins of unstructured play between parent and child• Part 2 – Interactive Reading

15 mins of parent and child reading• One of three bilingual books used at each time point

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?”

Progress to Date:

School Area Group No. parents recruited

No. attended ≥ 1 session

Bethesda Intervention 8 7

Blaenau Ffestiniog Intervention 5 5

Blaenau Ffestiniog Intervention 5 5

Caernarfon Intervention 4 3

Bangor Control 4 N/A

Total 26 20

Phase 1: Final sample: 20 Intervention 6 Control

Phase 2: Target sample: 28 Intervention 18 Control

Thank you for listeningDiolch am wrando

Any Questions?