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?