Strategies for creating and maintaining reciprocal partnerships between teachers and parents are considered essential elements of developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood education (ECE). Particularly for children who are high-risk for behavioral, developmental, or mental health problems, effective partnerships between family and preschool are essential for promoting optimal classroom participation and learning outcomes. The current study is an uncontrolled (pre-post) feasibility trial of Family-School Partnership Intervention (FPSI). FSPI was developed using stakeholder input, is delivered by existing preschool staff, and aims to promote development and reduce barriers to learning among children with pre-clinical social-communication delays. FSPI integrates evidence-based practices (EBPs) from education (7 EBPs; National Association for the Education of Young Children) with clinical interventions for toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (12 EBPs at the educator-parent level and 8 EBPs at the parent-child level; Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions). Data will be collected across 10 ECE programs. At each participating ECE program, research procedures will be completed during a single school year. Selected ECE programs will include public school, Head Start, and private preschool programs. Participants include 20 non-teaching support staff (1-2 per program; e.g., director, principal, education-coordinator), 30 lead teachers (2-4 per program), and 60 children with social-communication deficits (two per teacher). Data collection will focus on feasibility data (enrollment, attendance, attrition, data completion), observational measures of implementation fidelity (at the educator-parent and parent-child level), and mixed methods to evaluate educator and parent acceptability and satisfaction and identify implementation drivers/barriers. This research will prepare a large, multi-site hybrid trial to evaluate the effectiveness of FSPI for promoting social-communication skills and kindergarten readiness, in addition to factors that mediate the relation between FSPI delivery and fidelity (implementation drivers/barriers).
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
70
FSPI includes implementation activities across multiple levels. FSPI Planning Team Meetings will be held monthly to plan project activities, practice staff and parent coaching strategies, and troubleshoot implementation challenges. FSPI Staff Training (3 hours) will be provided during a single professional development day (3 hours), and attended by members of the FSPI Planning Team and teachers. FSPI Playgroups. Over the course of the school year, each parent-child dyad will be invited to participate in three FSPI Playgroup events. Typically, teachers from two classrooms will collaborate in hosting playgroup events, and each playgroup will be attended by four parent-child dyads (i.e., two per classroom). Teachers will be provided with a curriculum and learning outcomes to target. FSPI Debrief Meetings are held after each FSPI Playgroup to debrief, reflect, and improve FSPI implementation.
UNT
Denton, Texas, United States
RECRUITINGFeasibility benchmark - Enrollment
Throughout we will collect administrative data on enrollment. Data will be judged against pre-specified feasibility criteria: Enrollment (20 non-teaching staff, 30 teachers, 60 parents) will meet 100% of target.
Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 year
Feasibility benchmark - FSPI Completion
Throughout we will collect administrative data on attrition. Data will be judged against pre-specified feasibility criteria: % of parents completing the intervention. Benchmarks: \>80% for FSPI completion, \>75% for session attendance (parents), and \>80% for measure completion (staff, parents).
Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 year
Feasibility benchmark - Session Attendance
Throughout we will collect administrative data on session attendance. Data will be judged against pre-specified feasibility criteria: % of sessions completed by preschool staff and parents. Benchmarks: \>75% for session attendance.
Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 year
Feasibility benchmark - Measure Completion
Throughout we will collect administrative data on data collection components. Data will be judged against pre-specified feasibility criteria: % of measures completed by preschool staff and parents: Benchmarks: \>80%.
Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 year
Student-Teacher Relationship Scale
The STRS is rated by teachers (Pianta, 1992; 15 items) and provides subscales for closeness and conflict.
Time frame: baseline, exit
Child-Parent Relationship Scale
The CPRS is rated by parents (Driscoll \& Pianta, 2011; 15 items) and provides subscales for closeness and conflict.
Time frame: baseline, exit
Parent-Teacher Relationship Scale
The PTRS is rated by both parents and teachers (Vickers \& Minke, 1995; 24 items) and provides five subscales: (1) affiliation \& support, (2) dependability \& availability, (3) shared expectations \& beliefs, (4) sharing of emotions, and (5) sharing of information.
Time frame: baseline, exit
Social Skills Improvement System-Social Emotional Learning Edition-Rating Form
The SSIS-SEL Edition RF (Gresham \& Elliot, 2017; 58 items) is rated by teachers. It is a normed measure aligned with the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning framework (CASEL, 2013).
Time frame: baseline, exit
Acceptability of Intervention Measure, Intervention Appropriateness Measure, Feasibility of Intervention Measure
These three measures (AIM, IAM, FIM; Weiner et al., 2017; 12-items total) are rated by parents, teachers, and non-teaching staff. They evaluate feasibility, acceptability, and appropriateness benchmarks using a brief battery of implementation measures. Scores range from 1 to 5, and the benchmark will be set at \>3.5 (scores of 3 and 4 correspond to "neither agree nor disagree" and "agree").
Time frame: exit only
Observational coding of child active engagement and parent/teacher implementation fidelity
These will be coded from video-recorded FSPI Playgroup recordings using observational measures derived from the Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention (NDBI) framework (Edmunds et al., 2022).
Time frame: throughout the intervention period (at each intervention session)
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