School Readiness: Connecting Viewpoints on Child and Family Well-being and Identifying Commonalities Across Diverse Groups

儿童在早期学龄期的成功取决于“入学准备”的认知(例如，心理灵活性、凌驾于人的冲动、牢记信息)和社会(例如，理解他人的想法和感受)方面，因此，对于这个年龄段来说，这一概念与“幸福”的概念是重叠的。我们的项目旨在调查儿童的幸福和小学一年级的成功之间的联系。我们的第一个目标是比较从不同来源(即儿童、家长、教师和直接观察)收集的信息，这些信息彼此之间以及随着时间的推移(即接收和第一年)。通过从两个地区(东英吉利亚和西米德兰兹)招募500名儿童，并将我们的分析与对患有唐氏综合症的小学适龄儿童的平行研究相吻合，我们还将考虑样本多样性的影响。除了招募不同的儿童样本外，我们的招募策略将针对广泛的学校。我们的第二个目标是检查入学准备和幸福感与课堂特征的关系(例如，教室混乱，来自弱势家庭的儿童的比例，以及教师幸福感)。我们的目标是确定具有普遍影响的因素和对特定儿童群体(例如，有特殊教育需要的儿童)特别重要的因素。有效的干预措施取决于确定既对儿童的福祉至关重要又具有可塑性的因素。我们的第三个目标是考察家庭谈话在整个学年中的变化，以及家庭谈话与孩子上学准备和幸福之间的关系。我们将通过可穿戴式“谈话计步器”来评估家庭谈话，这种“谈话计步器”可以自动分析全天以儿童为导向的家庭谈话，以及在一天中可能对孩子的健康有影响的关键时间段(例如，用餐时间、就寝时间)对亲子谈话的不引人注意的录音。最近的研究表明，给予反馈会刺激家庭对话的增加，我们推测，这可能会有利于儿童的福祉。然而，在扩展这种干预方法之前，重要的是评估自动谈话测量反映家庭谈话的质量的程度(例如，谈话伙伴的话语彼此连接的程度)。通过扩展正在进行的学前工作，我们将：(I)评估自动谈话措施的有效性，以及(Ii)调查家庭谈话与儿童和父母幸福之间的联系。此外，通过使用相同的设备收集唐氏综合症儿童家庭的平行样本的全天谈话测量，我们将能够比较具有神经类型/神经多样性儿童的家庭的对话环境，并探索每个组内的个体差异。早期识别对干预措施的成功也至关重要。我们的第四个目标是考虑儿童和家庭幸福的早期生活指标在多大程度上预测儿童的幸福和入学准备。为此，我们将利用丰富的多时间点数据(例如，对父母在婴儿期和蹒跚学步的亲子互动的视频评分，对母亲和父亲的健康状况的全面评估，以及对幼儿早期认知能力的测试)，作为现有(ESRC资助的)180名儿童出生前跟踪研究的一部分。在多个时间点评估母亲和父亲的幸福感，也使我们能够通过考虑过渡到学校对父母幸福感的影响来开辟新的道路。我们将通过以下方式与利益相关者团体分享研究结果：(A)将为出版一本可供阅读的书籍奠定基础的定期通讯；(B)突出关于上学准备情况的不同观点的短片；以及(C)在不同地点举行的针对不同群体(如从业者、家长、儿童)的各种公共参与活动。

Children's success in the early school years hinges on both cognitive (e.g., mental flexibility, over-riding impulses, holding information in mind) and social (e.g., understanding others' thoughts and feelings) aspects of 'school readiness', such that, for this age group, this concept overlaps with that of 'wellbeing'. Our project aims to investigate links between children's wellbeing and success in the first years of primary school. Our first objective is to compare information gathered from different sources (i.e., children, parents, teachers and direct observations), both with each other and over time (i.e., Reception and Year 1). By recruiting 500 children from two regions (East Anglia and the West Midlands) and dovetailing our analyses with a parallel study of primary school-aged children with Down syndrome, we will also consider effects of sample diversity.Alongside recruiting a diverse sample of children, our recruitment strategy will target a wide range of schools. Our second objective is to examine school readiness and wellbeing in relation to classroom characteristics (e.g., classroom chaos, percentage of children from disadvantaged families, and teacher wellbeing). Our goal is to identify factors that have universal effects and factors that matter particularly for specific groups of children (e.g., those with special educational needs).Effective interventions depend upon identifying factors that both matter for children's wellbeing and are malleable. Our third objective is to examine changes in family talk across the school year and the relations between family talk and children's school readiness and wellbeing. We will assess family talk via wearable 'talk pedometers' that provide automated analysis of child-directed family talk across a full day, as well as unobtrusive recordings of parent-child conversations at key times in the day that are likely to matter for children's wellbeing (e.g., meal-times, bed-time). Recent work has shown that giving feedback stimulates increases in family conversations that, we posit, are likely to benefit children's well-being. Prior to extending this intervention approach it is, however, important to assess how well automated talk measures reflect the quality of family talk (e.g., the degree to which conversational partners' utterances are connected to each other). By extending ongoing preschool work we will: (i) assess the validity of automated talk measures, and (ii) investigate links between family talk and both child and parental wellbeing. In addition, by using the same devices to gather full-day measures of talk for a parallel sample of families of children with Down Syndrome, we will be able to compare the conversational environments of families with neurotypical / neurodiverse children, and explore individual differences within each group.Early identification is also crucial to the success of interventions. Our fourth objective is to consider how well early life measures of child and family wellbeing predict children's well-being and school readiness. To this end, we will draw on rich multi-time-point data (e.g., video-based ratings of parent-child interactions in infancy and toddlerhood for mothers and fathers, comprehensive assessments of maternal and paternal wellbeing, and tests of toddlers' early cognitive skills) gathered as part of an existing (ESRC-funded) study of 180 children followed from before birth. Assessing both maternal and paternal wellbeing across multiple time-points also enables us to break new ground by considering the impact of the transition to school on parental well-being. We will share study findings with stake-holder groups through: (a) regular newsletters that will provide the foundation for an accessible book; (b) short video clips highlighting different viewpoints on school readiness; and (c) a variety of public engagement events held across different locations and aimed at diverse groups (e.g., practitioners, parents, children).