Efficacy of Tools of the Mind for Enhancing Self-Control in Preschoolers
Condition: Self Control; Early Childhood Development
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Self-control has become a strong predictor of academic success and life outcomes. Early
      childhood development research indicates that greater self-control can lead to better health,
      greater wealth, and less propensity to engage in criminal activity. This study seeks to
      assess the strength of the play-based "Tools of the Mind" (TOM) program in improving
      preschoolers self-control. It will compare TOM to an alternative play-based program, called
      "Playing to Learn" (PTL), implemented in most YMCA Canada childcare settings across the
      country. This study hypothesizes that measures of self-control and other measures of social
      behavior and academic success in preschoolers after two years in the TOM program will be
      greater than measures of self-control and other measures of social behavior and academic
      success in preschoolers in the PTL program after two-years.
    

Detailed description: 
      We will compare growth in self-control and in related areas of development (mathematics,
      reading, language, social reasoning) in children taught with TOM to children instructed with
      Playing to Learn (PTL; Eden & Huggins, 2001) - a play based preschool program now in wide use
      in YMCA childcare settings across Canada (and some in the United States). PTL was developed
      by an educator/author and by the General Manager of Education, Development, and Research at
      YMCA Canada. It was selected as the comparison program because it is also a coherent
      play-based program. In previous studies involving TOM, the comparison programs have differed
      from TOM on a number of dimensions and often have not been play-based (e.g. Diamond et al.,
      2007), posing challenges for the interpretation of the results.

      In contrast to TOM, the activities in PTL are child initiated and are not prescribed.
      Teachers are trained to observe children at play and to capitalize on learning opportunities
      as they arise. For example, children who are using blocks to build a fort, may be encouraged
      to think about how the size and arrangement of the blocks influences its final structure, to
      count the number of blocks involved, the number of children the structure can accommodate as
      well as the structure's affordances. Instruction in self-control is an emergent property of
      these child-initiated activities. For example, teachers may help children to solve the
      problem of too few blocks for all of the children interested in the block building activity,
      by organizing themselves into teams and taking turns. They may assist in conflict resolution
      by helping children to generate alternative solutions such as stopping to think about the
      conflict and using words instead of impulsive actions to express their dissatisfaction.
      Comparison of the development of self-control in children taught with the TOM and PTL
      programs will thus provide a sense of the benefits (if any) to children of a more focused,
      teacher-directed approach to teaching self-control.

      The primary research question is: Do preschool children taught with the TOM program show
      greater growth in self-control than their peers who are taught with the PTL program over a
      two year period? The secondary research question is: If there is a significant difference
      between the TOM and PTL children in growth in self-control, does that enhanced growth confer
      benefits for development more generally (for children's cognitive, social, linguistic and
      academic development)? The proposed efficacy study will be conducted in partnership with the
      YMCA organization of the greater Toronto area. The study duration will be two years as the
      TOM program follows a 2-year in-service training plan and children are not expected to reach
      maximal benefits from exposure to the program until the second year. Twenty YMCA sites will
      participate, with one participating preschool class (2 teachers) at each site. The criteria
      for inclusion on the list is that the site must have at least one preschool class,
      instruction must take place in English, and the preschoolers currently in attendance must not
      be slated to attend full-day Kindergarten (as per the province's roll out plan) within the
      study period. Ten sites (classes) will be randomly assigned to either the TOM or the PTL
      conditions. The YMCA has agreed to provide data on the proportion of families served at each
      site who pay full fees and those whose fees are subsidized. These data will serve as a proxy
      for the socioeconomic status of the two groups. Random assignment should result in no
      difference between the two groups in the mean proportion of families paying full fees.

      Both groups of teachers will receive training (TOM) or in-service workshops (PTL) in their
      respective programs, in each of the two years of the study. Training for TOM will be
      conducted as required by the program developers; two days of training in the fall and three
      full days of following up training - one in each in the late fall, winter and spring - of the
      two years of the study. Professionals from the TOM organization will conduct the TOM training
      as well as follow-up coaching and assistance to the TOM teachers as needed. Teachers new to
      the YMCA receive two full days of PTL training. All receive in service workshops every year
      as well as ongoing in- class teacher training and coaching. The workshops and ongoing
      assistance are administered by senior YMCA training staff, with a wealth of experience with
      the PTL program. Every effort will be made to align the amount and the timing of the
      training/workshops in the two groups. The teachers in both groups will instruct their
      students according to their assigned programs for the entire study period (2 years),
      including the summertime.

      Program fidelity will be assessed in two ways: 1). using the teacher assessment data
      generated by experienced evaluators from each program, as per standard practice for both the
      TOM and PTL programs and 2). by our own classroom observations. Both programs have
      established methods of assessing teacher fidelity (Bodrova & Leong, 2007; Eden & Huggins,
      2001). Successful implementation of the TOM program takes several months to achieve and is
      said to reach acceptable fidelity levels around March of the first year. Fidelity is assessed
      periodically, over the first two years of implementation. The YMCA conducts teacher
      assessments that include PTL fidelity measures annually, around April. We will use the
      results from the early spring (April) assessments in the two years of the study, for both
      programs, to determine the teachers' implementation fidelity to their respective programs.

      Although both organizations report that reaching acceptable levels of fidelity is not
      typically problematic, the PTL and TOM assessments will be conducted using different methods,
      criteria and instruments for documentation. These will capture fidelity to the respective
      programs - as judged by trained observers from each program - however, they will not address
      either the differences or possible similarities between programs. This information that could
      provide critical insights into the mechanisms that might sub-serve different success rates
      (effects on the development of self-regulation) in the two programs, should such differences
      arise. Hence, we will also conduct our own observations. A member of our research team will
      visit each site for a full day and document their observations using a Preschool Observation
      Measure (POM), which is currently being developed by our research team. The POM contains a
      list of observable activities and practices one would expect to see in a typical TOM
      classroom, in a typical PTL classroom and more general practices one would expect to see in
      any quality child care setting. The observers will rate each classroom with respect to how
      well the teachers administer these activities. The idea is that TOM teachers should rate more
      highly on the TOM practices and PTL teachers more highly on the PTL activities, while the two
      groups may overlap substantially on the more general teaching practices. The observations and
      ratings will be done in the spring (April - May) of each of the two years of the study.

      Participants. Preschool classes and their teachers will be randomly selected from the
      preschool classrooms at the target sites (n = 10 TOM and 10 PTL classes, 20 TOM and 20 PTL
      teachers, N= 20 classes and 40 teachers). The criteria for participation in the study for the
      teachers are: valid Ontario Early Childhood Education certification; permanent, full-time
      status; no plan to take a leave of absence during the study period; proficiency in spoken
      English; no known uncorrected hearing or vision impairments; no previous experience with the
      TOM program; and a signed teacher consent form. As the teachers already provide instruction
      in English, the English proficiency and no uncorrected impairments requirements are not
      expected to rule out any teachers currently working at the YMCA.

      Twelve to fourteen children, per participating preschool class, will be randomly selected for
      tracking over the course of the study (n's = 120-140 children in each condition, N =
      240-280). Boys and girls will be equally represented. The criteria for student participation
      are: born between July 2007 and December 2008, inclusive (3 to 4 years of age in 2011),
      sufficient command of English to understand the teacher's instructions (as judged by their
      teacher, English as a Second Language - ELL - students will be included provided they meet
      this criterion); no known uncorrected sensory, neurological, or physical impairments that
      might prevent full participation in the activities outlined by either program (again, as
      judged by the teacher) and a signed parental consent form. We will obtain information
      regarding the above teacher and student criteria from the YMCA.

      As our primary research question concerns the relative efficacy of TOM for improving
      self-regulation skills, the primary outcome measures will be two tasks that tap inhibitory
      control (see below). Our secondary research question concerns the implications for enhancing
      self-control for children's development more generally including their cognitive,
      social/emotional, language, and academic development as well their attention skills and
      overall adjustment. Accordingly, we will measure change over the study period in the
      development of children's classroom and home behaviour, attention skills, theory of mind,
      receptive and expressive vocabulary, mathematics, as well as drawing, writing and pre/early
      literacy skills, all of which have been linked to executive function (see e.g. McInnes,
      Humphries, Hogg-Johnson & Tannock, 2003 and Martinussen, Hayden, Hogg-Johnson & Tannock,
      2005, for poor attention skills and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); Kyte,
      Goodyer & Sahakian, 2005 for inhibitory control and depression; Carlson & Moses, 2001 for
      theory of mind and executive function; Carlson & Moses, 2001 and Hughes, 1998 for inhibitory
      control and language, and Blair & Razza, 2007 and Bull & Scerif, 2001 for inhibitory control
      and reading and mathematics skills). All of the measures will be administered in the fall and
      the spring of the two years of the study (2011-2012 and 2012-2013).

      Children will be tested individually, in a quiet location in their preschool, during regular
      preschool hours. We will coordinate with the teachers to ensure minimal disruption to their
      classrooms during the four data collection time points. The total test time for the children
      is 35-45 minutes at each time point (spring and fall of the two study years), which will be
      divided into two test sessions of about 25 minutes each (excluding the time for the
      drawings/play plans which will be administered as part of the PTL and TOM curricula). To help
      maintain motivation, the tasks will be presented in the form of games, breaks will be given
      between tasks as needed and children will be praised for their efforts. Previous experience
      has shown that children in this age group find such "games" highly enjoyable and that 30
      minutes of focused attention to a variety of tasks is well within the attention range of most
      preschoolers, when working with experienced experimenters.
    

Intervention name(s): Tools of the Mind (TOM); Playing to Learn (PTL)
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): TOM is play-based but features explicit, scripted, teacher-directed activities aimed specifically at helping to improve children's self-control skills. Early evidence supports the program efficacy and suggests benefits for children's development more generally (including language, reading and mathematics).; PTl is a play based preschool program now in wide use in YMCA childcare settings across Canada (and some in the United States). The activities in PTL are child initiated and are not prescribed. Teachers are trained to observe children at play and to capitalize on learning opportunities as they arise.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Self-control; Preschoolers; Tools of the Mind; Playing to Learn