Improving Self-regulation & School Readiness in Preschoolers
Condition: Executive Dysfunction
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This project will develop and evaluate the initial effectiveness of an intervention training
      executive functioning, metacognition, and self-regulation in preschoolers attending certain
      high poverty Cincinnati preschools. Studies show that these skills are critical for school
      performance, and that children with better executive functioning have better long term
      outcomes. It is also important to intervene early when children are most likely to profit
      because their brains are rapidly developing. There are some promising programs targeting
      these skills in preschoolers, but few are available to teachers for implementation in the
      classroom setting. The specific aims of this study are: 1) to adapt a promising clinic-based
      program for the preschool classroom environment, and 2) to test the feasibility and initial
      impact of the adapted program on executive functioning and school readiness in schools with a
      high proportion of children from low income families.
    

Detailed description: 
      We propose to translate a promising intervention, Executive-function Training for Attention
      and Metacognition (ETAM), originally developed for use in a clinic setting, to be delivered
      in the school setting, ultimately by teachers. Specifically, we propose to develop a
      curriculum that can be added to the classroom curriculum which will target the development of
      self-regulation and metacognition in preschoolers. Thus the purpose of the study is to 1)
      develop a teacher training program based on the principles we have found to be effective in a
      parent-based intervention and 2) test the feasibility and initial efficacy (i.e., reduced
      disruptive behaviors and increased school readiness) of the program in children from low
      income families. We will randomly assign 6 preschools to receive the teacher training
      component and 6 schools to serve as a control group (i.e., will not receive the
      intervention). We will conduct assessments on all preschoolers in the classroom prior to
      delivering the teacher training (i.e., beginning of the school year), provide the training to
      preschoolers in classrooms randomized to the active intervention group, and then conduct
      assessments at the end of the school year. Our primary aims are to assess the feasibility of
      a program designed to train teachers to incorporate the principles of the training program
      into the daily classroom environment, and to assess whether the program improves executive
      functioning and functional outcomes [i.e., Attention/Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
      symptoms, academic readiness, social competence], as compared to outcomes of children in the
      control schools. Although study personnel will be responsible for delivery of the
      intervention, preschool teachers will be closely involved in the process to provide ongoing
      feedback regarding the study intervention.
    

Intervention name(s): Classroom Intervention
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: executive functioning; metacognition; self-regulation; preschoolers