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

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 1

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

Commenting and describing Asking open-ended questions Responding with encouragement Expanding on what the child says Reading with CARE building blocks C A R E

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 The Evaluation

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 Recruitment

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 Group delivery & data collection

Demographics Personal Data and Health Questionnaire (PDHQ; Hutchings, 1996) Mean Child age46 months Primary caregiver age33 years Primary caregivers age when first child born 25 years Primary caregivers age leaving school 17 years

Demographics % Child gender52% boys Caregiver gender98% females Biological parent100% Married / living together81% Very low income36% State benefits25%

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