Focus on Learning

描述(申请人提供)：这项研究项目旨在改善有阅读困难风险的儿童在进入幼儿园时的入学准备。它将提供以家长为中心的干预措施，重点是学习，将亲子活动(互动阅读、字母和声音游戏)和基于计算机的辅导(目标是新兴识字技能)与社会情感支持活动(目标是父母热情参与、敏感反应、情感辅导和支持儿童自我调节)结合在一起。目标是改善父母对儿童在家学习的支持，从而促进儿童口语技能、新兴识字技能和适应性学习方法的发展。该方案已在三个不同社区的学校-社区小组的投入下进行了实地测试和通报。已经做出努力，以最优的方式支持和参与父母，而不用认知或行为需求压倒他们，来包装、调整和组织该计划的交付。试点测试验证了干预方法的“概念证明”，产生了较高的家长和孩子参与率，包括在家中大量使用学习活动，父母实施的质量相当高(根据家庭访客的评分并记录在计算机日志中)。因此，该计划是可行的，现在已经准备好进行功效试验，该试验可以在严格的随机试验中评估其对目标父母技能以及对儿童学习和成就的影响。拟议的研究项目将对主要面向低收入家庭的三个学区的所有幼儿园儿童进行筛查，以确定270名在识字和语言技能标准化考试中得分低于全国平均数一个标准差的儿童。这些儿童将被随机分配到干预组或对照组。在干预条件下的儿童及其家庭将在幼儿园期间接受15次家访，并在一年级期间接受6次“助推器”家访。我们将跟随孩子们读完二年级和三年级，这是他们应该掌握阅读并完全适应学校环境的行为要求的时候。评估将利用多方法、多信息者战略，监测父母对干预目标的学习支持、儿童口头语言和识字技能以及学习方法和学业成绩的改善情况。我们预计，与控制条件下的儿童相比，干预条件下的儿童将在语言、新出现的识字技能、适应学习方法和在校学习行为方面表现出更大的收获。我们假设，随着时间的推移，在这些技能方面的收获将保持下去，促进学校行为和社会适应的改善，并有助于更高水平的学业成就。此外，我们预计，接受干预的父母将改善他们在家中为孩子提供的学习支持的质量和数量，父母对孩子在家中学习的支持的改善将中介干预对孩子结果的影响。与公共健康相关：进入小学时有认知和社会情绪延迟的儿童，阅读问题、学业成绩不佳和学校脱节的风险增加，同时出现学校行为问题和与老师和同龄人的冲突关系的风险也增加(Campbell&von Stauffenberg，出版社；Pianta&Castaldi，1989)。成绩差距随着时间的推移而扩大，因此生活在贫困中的儿童在通过教育系统时经历了严重学习问题和成绩低下的比率上升，许多儿童在完成高中学业之前就辍学了(Ryan等人，2006年)。由于美国的儿童贫困率接近20%，而且还在攀升(儿童保护基金会，2005年)，制定干预措施以促进就学和缩小成绩差距是国家的优先事项。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This research project seeks to improve the school readiness of children at risk for reading difficulties as they enter kindergarten. It will provide a parent-focused intervention, Focus on Learning, that combines parent-child activities (interactive reading, letter and sound games) and computer-based tutoring (targeting emergent literacy skills) with social-emotional support activities (targeting parental warm involvement, sensitive-responding, emotion coaching, and support for child self-regulation). The goal is to improve parent support for child learning at home, thereby fostering gains in child oral language skills, emergent literacy skills, and adaptive approaches to learning. The program has been field-tested and informed by the input of school-community teams in three diverse communities. Efforts have been made to package, pace, and organize the delivery of the program in a manner that optimally supports and engages parents, without overwhelming them with cognitive or behavioral demands. Pilot testing has validated "proof of concept" for the intervention approach, producing high rates of parent and child engagement, including substantial use of the learning activities at home, with reasonably high quality of implementation by parents (as rated by home visitors and documented on computer logs). Hence, the program is feasible and is now ready for an efficacy trial which can evaluate its impact on the targeted parenting skills and on child learning and achievement in a rigorous randomized trial. The proposed research project will screen all of the children attending kindergarten in three school districts serving primarily low-income families in order to identify 270 children who score one standard deviation below the national mean on standardized tests of literacy and language skills. These children will be randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. Children and their families in the intervention condition will receive 15 home visits during kindergarten and 6 "booster" home visits during first grade. We will follow children through second and third grade, the point at which they should have mastered reading and be fully adjusted to the behavioral demands of the school setting. Assessments will utilize a multi-method, multi- informant strategy to monitor improvements in parental support for learning as targeted by the intervention, and in child oral language and literacy skills, as well as approaches to learning and academic achievement. We anticipate that children in the intervention condition will show greater gains in language, emergent literacy skills, adaptive approaches to learning, and learning behaviors at school, when compared with children in the control condition. We hypothesize that the gains in these skills will maintain over time, foster improved behavioral and social adaptation at school, and contribute to higher levels of academic achievement. Furthermore, we anticipate that parents who receive the intervention will improve the quality and quantity of learning support they offer their children at home, and that improvements in parent support for child learning at home will mediate intervention effects on child outcomes. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Children who enter elementary school with cognitive and social-emotional delays are at an increased risk for reading problems, academic underachievement, and school disengagement, as well as for concurrent school behavior problems and conflictual relationships with teachers and peers (Campbell & von Stauffenberg, in press; Pianta & Castaldi, l989). The achievement gap widens over time, such that children living in poverty experience elevated rates of serious learning problems and underachievement as they move through the educational system, and many drop out prior to completing high school (Ryan et al., 2006). With rates of child poverty near 20 percent and climbing in the United States(Children's Defense Fund, 2005), the development of interventions to promote school readiness and reduce the achievement gap represents a national priority.