evaluation of the incredible years school readiness parenting programme in north wales

Evaluation of the Incredible Years

SCHOOL READINESS Parenting Programme in North

Wales6th March 2013

Kirstie Pye, PhD Student

Background “School Readiness” – multi-dimensional concept

involving the child, home, and school 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)

The IY School Readiness programme

The programme – 2 partsPART 1: Child-directed play: Strengthening social, emotional, and cognitive skills Emotion coaching and problem-solving Encouraging language skills and creativity

PART 2: Interactive reading Encouraging social, emotional, academic and problem

solving skills Having fun with books and letting the child be the

storyteller

Reading with CARE

Commenting and describing

Asking open-ended questions

Responding with encouragement

Expanding on what the child says

CARE

Aims To establish:

A battery of effective measures to assess the effectiveness of the programme

The effectiveness of the new Programme

Any difficulties or barriers in implementing the programme

Sample and design

Assessment BatteryParents

Demographics Play And Reading Observation

Tool (Pye et al, in preparation) Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory

(Eyberg & Robinson, 1978) Parent Strengths and Difficulties

Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997) Parental Sense of Competence

(Johnston & Mash, 1989)

Group leaders Focus group End of programme

evaluation Weekly delivery

evaluations

Primary Outcome measure

Baseline characteristics

Results – question

Significant difference between intervention and control, d = 0.84

Results – open question

Significant difference between intervention and control, d = 0.85

Results – closed question

No significant difference between intervention and control

Results – encouragement/praise

Significant difference between intervention and control, d = 0.86

Results – parent verbalisations

Significant difference between intervention and control, d = 0.79

Results – child verbalisations

No significant difference between intervention and control, d= 0.61

Other Results • No significant differences between intervention and control

for descriptive comment and reflection/expansion

• No significant differences between intervention and control for SDQ total difficulties, ECBI intensity and PSOC total score

Feedback How likely are you to run the programme again at your

school in the future? Very likely = 4 Likely = 3 Schools and parents reported an improved home-school

relationship Schools said they felt more comfortable talking to the

parents and felt they were better heard by the parents after the programme

Some schools have already started to deliver the programme again

Opportunity for schools to co-deliver with nursery staff in July before the children start school

Costs Room preparation time = 15/30/60 mins Session preparation time = 30/60/90 mins Group time = 2 hours Catch-up sessions = 0/30/60 mins Telephone calls = 20/30 mins Supervision = 2 hours Costs

Supply cover for teacher (£80 - £300 per week) Refreshments etc. (£4 per week)

Feedback from the parents...

Enjoyed the sessions and would of liked more, 4 doesn’t seem enough.

Sharing stories has given me ideas of what we can do.

I encourage the school to provide this short course to all parents of

pre-school children. Was very helpful and informative, all parents

would benefit.

Feedback from the parents...

Feel much more positive about myself and my

children due to the CARE side of the sessions

Sad that this is the end of the course. Enjoyed the time. Feel that my boys have had lots of

“happy” times…

Week 1: Scary to start with, afraid that I’d come across as daft, or say something stupid….Got a lot out of the sessions

Week 4: Thank you, I have gained confidence, knowledge, hopefully will

carry forward into the future

Thanks for listening!

psp880@bangor.ac.uk