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

儿童在早期学校的成功取决于两个认知（例如，心理灵活性，压倒冲动，在头脑中保持信息）和社会（例如，理解他人的想法和感受）方面的“学校准备”，因此，对于这个年龄组来说，这个概念与“幸福”的概念重叠。我们的项目旨在调查儿童在小学一年级的幸福感和成功之间的联系。我们的第一个目标是比较从不同来源收集的信息（即，儿童、父母、教师和直接观察），彼此之间以及随着时间的推移（即，1年和1年）。通过从两个地区（东英吉利和西米德兰）招募500名儿童，并将我们的分析与一项对患有唐氏综合症的小学学龄儿童的平行研究相结合，我们还将考虑样本多样性的影响。除了招募多样化的儿童样本，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学校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比例以及教师福利）。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特别重要的因素（例如，有效的干预措施取决于确定哪些因素对儿童的福祉至关重要，哪些因素具有可塑性。我们的第三个目标是检查整个学年的家庭谈话的变化和家庭谈话与儿童的入学准备和幸福感之间的关系。我们将通过可穿戴的“谈话计步器”来评估家庭谈话，这些计步器可以自动分析一整天中针对儿童的家庭谈话，以及在一天中可能对儿童健康有影响的关键时间（例如，吃饭时间、睡觉时间）。最近的研究表明，给予反馈会刺激家庭对话的增加，我们认为，这可能有利于儿童的福祉。然而，在扩展这种干预方法之前，重要的是评估自动化谈话测量如何反映家庭谈话的质量（例如，会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，（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征儿童家庭的平行样本的全天谈话测量，我们将能够比较神经典型/神经多样性儿童家庭的谈话环境，并探索每个群体中的个体差异。早期识别也是干预成功的关键。我们的第四个目标是考虑如何以及早期生活的儿童和家庭福祉的措施预测儿童的福祉和入学准备。为此，我们将利用丰富的多时间点数据（例如，这些数据包括：对父母在婴儿期和幼儿期的亲子互动进行基于视频的评级，对母亲和父亲的幸福感进行全面评估，以及对幼儿早期认知技能进行测试），这些数据是作为现有（ESRC资助）研究的一部分收集的，该研究对180名儿童进行了出生前的跟踪。在多个时间点评估母亲和父亲的福祉也使我们能够通过考虑过渡到学校对父母福祉的影响来开辟新的天地。我们会透过以下方式与持牌团体分享研究结果：（a）定期出版通讯，为编写一本可供阅读的书籍奠定基础;（B）播放短片，介绍不同人士对入学准备的不同观点;以及（c）在不同地点举办多项公众参与活动，对象包括不同团体（例如：医生、父母、孩子）。

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).