Let´s Talk About Children Intervention in a School Context
Condition: Children's Wellbeing; Child Overall Health Related Quality of Life; Burnout
MeSH terms: Burnout, Psychological
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The aim of this study is to examine the fidelity, the perceived benefits, and the
      effectiveness of the Let's Talk about Children (LTC) -intervention in a school context. The
      Let's Talk about Children method is a standardised, family-focused intervention aimed to
      build a shared understanding between parents, children, and teachers to find ways of working
      together to support the child's everyday life, well-being, learning, and development, both at
      home and at school. The Let's Talk about Children intervention is used in several different
      schools in Finland. The study examines the effects of the Let's Talk about Children method on
      the teacher-student relationship, the trust between teachers and parents and the students',
      teachers' and parents' well-being. Participants (N=1316 school-children, N=188
      school-teachers and N=1316 parents) are recruited and divided into intervention and control
      groups. The intervention group consists of teachers who use the Let's Talk about Children
      method in their work and those students and parents who participate in the Let's Talk about
      Children discussions. The control group includes teachers who do not use the method in their
      work and students and parents who do not participate in the discussions. The fidelity and
      perceived benefits of the method are examined in the intervention group. Otherwise, there is
      two data collection points. The data is collected in intervention and control groups before
      the intervention and 6 months after the intervention.
    

Detailed description: 
      The Let´s Talk about Children Intervention method is one of the Effective Child & Family
      Methods. The LTC -method was developed as a part of the Functioning Child & Family project
      co-ordinated by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. The LTC -intervention includes
      two steps: Let´s Talk about Children discussion and Let´s Talk about Children network
      meeting. The method is used in social- and healthcare services, kindergartens and schools but
      has been studied mainly in the field of social- and healthcare services. The aim of the LTC
      -work in schools is to support the child's well-being, learning and development in everyday
      life. The other aim of the LTC -intervention in the school environment is to support teachers
      and parents in their everyday interactions and activities with children. The LTC is used to
      build a common comprehensive understanding of the child and his/her situation in school and
      at home, and to plan actions based on this understanding. The aim is also to build a mutually
      supportive parent-teacher relationship based on respect. Students, parents and a teacher take
      part in the discussion. The LTC logbook is used as the framework for the discussions. The LTC
      -method is based on an ecological, transactional model of child development.

      The research questions of the research study are:

      Is the intervention delivered as designed? How do teachers/parents experience the Let´s Talk
      about Children intervention? Does the Let´s Talk about Children intervention have an effect
      on teacher and student relationship? Does the Let´s Talk about Children intervention have an
      effect on teacher and parent relationship? Does the Let´s Talk about Children intervention
      have an effect on students´ well-being? Does the Let´s Talk about Children intervention have
      an effect on teachers´ well-being at work? Does the Let´s Talk about Children intervention
      have an effect on parents´ well-being?
    

Intervention name(s): Let's Talk about Children intervention
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The LTC -intervention includes two steps: Let´s Talk about Children discussion and Let´s Talk about Children network meeting. Students, students´ parents, and a teacher take part in the LTC -discussion. The LTC logbook is used as the framework for the discussions. The LTC discussion depicts the child's ordinary day in all developmental contexts and an action plan is made with parents to enhance the identified strengths and to give support in vulnerabilities. When the action plan is difficult to carry out without further participants, the LTC-Network meeting is planned with parents (and sometimes also the child). LTC-Network meeting provides a forum for case-based cross-sectoral collaboration, including also the families and their social network.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: Let's Talk about Children; School; Teacher-Student Relationship; Teacher-Parent Relationship; Children's Wellbeing; Teachers' Occupational Wellbeing; Parental Burnout