Evidence-Based Family School Partnerships for Early Childhood

The Future of School Psychology Task Force on Family-School Partnerships

Jon Lasser and Kathryn Woods

Overview

Efforts to provide early childhood programs, collaborations, and resources to children, families, and schools are a critical component of a proactive, prevention oriented, comprehensive plan for positive child outcomes See FSP Handout 1 for More Information

Rationale for a Multi-Tiered Approach to Family-School Partnerships

   Family-school partnerships provide a context for families and educators to collaboratively identify and prioritize concerns across a continuum of opportunities and intensities Prevention and intervention efforts and supports are delivered toward a universal and targeted audience A multi-tiered approach enables families and educators to provide services based on a student’s responsiveness to previous preventions, interventions, and supports

See FSP Handout 2 for More Information

Explanation for a Multi-Tiered Approach to Family-School Partnerships

 Provides various levels of family-school supports based on a student’s identified need and responsiveness to previous efforts    Universal – Family-school collaboration provided to support all students and families (e.g., 4 As, Parent-School Collaboration, Parent Involvement, Parent Education). Targeted – Family-school collaboration provided to support identified students and families unresponsive to previous universal efforts (e.g., Parent Education and Intervention, Parent Consultation).

Intensive – Family-school collaboration provided to students and families unresponsive to previous targeted efforts (e.g., Parent Consultation [conjoint behavioral consultation] and Parent Intervention).

The Multi-Tiered Approach to Family-School Partnerships

Tier 3: Intensive, Individual Interventions Individualized supports for families and students unresponsive to the first two tiers (e.g., Parent Consultation [conjoint behavioral consultation] and Family Intervention) Tier 2: Targeted Group Interventions Specific preventions and remedial interventions for targeted groups of families and students identified as “at risk” and unresponsive to the first tier (e.g., Parent Training and Intervention, Parent Consultation )

Tier 3

1-7%

Tier 2

5-15% Tier 1: Universal Interventions Engaging all families as collaborative partners (e.g., 4 As, Family-School Collaboration, Parent Involvement, Parent Education )

Tier 1

80-90%

Evidence-Based Interventions in this Module

• Dialogic Reading Parents and teachers learn how to build emergent literacy and language skills by encouraging young children to become active participants through interactive and shared picture book reading practices • Incredible Years Parent and teacher training programs designed to promote social adjustment of preschool and elementary school children through positive discipline and involvement • Parent-Child Interaction Therapy An intervention designed to restructure parent-child interaction patterns to facilitate a more positive relationship, often used to treat children with disruptive behavior disorders

Early Intervention

 The goal of early intervention is to prevent or reduce the effects of academic, social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties for children who are at risk due to physical, mental, or environmental conditions (Bates, 2005)  These services may prevent developmental delays from worsening and ameliorate later disabilities that require special education services (Jacob & Hartshorne, 2003)  Federal mandates such as IDEA outline the importance of early intervention and family involvement:  Part B mandates services for children ages 3 to 5  Part C mandates services for infants and toddlers as well as family involvement in intervention programs

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Importance of Working with Families

Parents have enormous influence over their children’s behavioral, emotional, and social development  At no time is this influence more important than during a child’s preschool years  Many of the behavioral problems that young children exhibit are established through their earliest interactions with their parents  Even in cases where the child’s problems may originate due to biological or developmental characteristics, many problem behaviors may worsen due to the interaction patterns between parents and children

Early Childhood Education

   Early childhood learning experiences are more important for children today than ever before Many children enter school unprepared to learn and many lack basic knowledge regarding letters, vocabulary, sentence structure and numbers crucial to school success Parents and teachers must work together to optimize learning environments and prepare children for school success

Emergent Literacy Skills

   Emergent literacy skills include the knowledge and attitudes that are presumed to be developmental precursors to conventional forms of reading and writing, as well as the environments that support these precursors As children develop their emergent literacy skills, they will be better prepared to learn essential school skills related to reading and writing Children will also be more likely to maintain these skills throughout their early learning years (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998)

Early Literacy Experiences

 Children’s preschool experiences with books also plays an important role in academic performance in later years  Wells (1985) found that the frequency of listening to stories between 1 and 3 years of age was associated to teacher ratings of oral language skills at 5 years of age and reading comprehension at 7 years of age

Early Literacy Experiences cont.

 Providing children with early literacy experiences is particularly important for children living in low income environments  These children may experience a limited amount of time exposed to books due to lack of availability and limited time available for parents to read with their children (Whitehurst et al., 1994)

Social Skills Development

   Children develop appropriate social skills across home and school settings when parents and teachers model positive problem-solving and manage misbehavior effectively (Patterson, 1982; Webster-Stratton, 2000) Because children with conduct problems often experience academic failures, prevention and intervention efforts should target all facets of problem situations Early intervention may prevent more serious, chronic difficulties

References

Bates, S.L. (2005). Evidence-based family-school interventions. School Psychology Quarterly, 20, 352-370.

Jacob, S., & Hartshorne, T. (2003). Ethics and law for school psychologists (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Patterson, G.R. (1982). Coercive Family Process. Eugene, OR: Castalia.

Webster-Stratton, C. (June, 2000). The Incredible Years Training Series. Juvenile Justice Bulletin. US Department of Justice.

Wells, G. (1985). Language development in the preschool years. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Whitehurst, G. J., Arnold, D. S., Epstein, J. N., Angell, A. L., Smith, M., & Fischel, J. E. (1994). A picture book reading intervention in daycare and home for children from low-income families. Developmental Psychology, 30, 679–689.

Whitehurst, G. J. & Lonigan, C. J. (1998). Child development and emergent literacy. Child Development, 69, 848-872.