Play and Pre-Literacy Among Young Children
Condition: Child Development
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Children begin to develop fundamental motor skills (FMS), such as running and kicking, and
      pre-literacy skills, such as rhyming, during early childhood. These skills are very important
      as they lay the foundation for more complex movements and literacy skill development later in
      life, support overall healthy development in several areas, and help contribute to the
      child's readiness for school. A child with strong motor skills is well equipped to lead a
      life with healthy levels of physical activity, positive social interactions, positive
      self-perceptions, and greater cognitive and language abilities. These skills will not develop
      optimally on their own so it is essential to teach, challenge, and reinforce them at an early
      age; often this learning takes place at home prior to entering school. Most research on this
      topic has primarily focused on school-aged children or children with specific developmental
      challenges and less is known about teaching motor and pre-literacy skills to young children
      and giving parents the tools to practice these skills at home with their children. The aim of
      the present study is to examine the effect of a motor and pre-literacy program, which
      emphasizes parental involvement, on motor, pre-literacy, social skills, cognitive abilities,
      and self-competence in 3 to 4 year old children with typical development.
    

Detailed description: 
      The primary purpose of the intervention is to support the overall healthy development of
      children. Children will be recruited from families attending community agencies (e.g. Ontario
      Early Years Centres) in Hamilton. Interested parents will receive information flyers with the
      study team's contact information and instructions to contact the study team if they are
      interested in participating in the study. Interested parents will be screened for eligibility
      of their child. Information packages will be emailed or mailed to eligible families and will
      be followed-up with over the telephone in one week to obtain informed verbal consent.
      Baseline appointments will be booked for all eligible children. Informed written consent will
      be obtained at the baseline appointment before testing begins. Children will be randomized
      1:1 to either the experimental or wait-list control group. Randomization will be completed
      using a computer algorithm. All children will be assessed pre- and post-program as well as at
      follow-up, 5 weeks after the completion of the program. Children in the wait-list control
      group will be assessed one additional time at baseline. The program will run for one hour per
      week for 10 consecutive weeks. Parents will be asked to complete a checklist each week
      indicating the number of times they practiced the activities at home. A sample size of 36
      children is considered sufficient to provide 80% power to detect a medium effect size, with
      an alpha of 0.05. Eighteen children will be randomized to the experimental group and 18
      children will be randomized to the wait-list control group.
    

Intervention name(s): Motor and pre-literacy program; Wait-list Comparison
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Other
Intervention description(s): The program will run for 60 minutes once per week for 10 consecutive weeks and will consist of three components: direct FMS instruction, unstructured exploratory free-play, and an interactive storybook reading activity. The curriculum and teaching strategies to be used for the first two segments of our intervention have been successfully implemented in previous research to improve the motor skills of 4 year old children with autism (Bremer, Balogh, & Lloyd, 2014). Specific strategies and books were selected from an existing evidence-based curriculum (Justice & McGuinty, 2009). There will be active involvement of at least one parent in the direct instruction and reading components.; The participants will not participate in the motor and pre-literacy program for 10 weeks after enrollment and will continue with their normal daily life without any intervention. After the experimental arm completes the motor and pre-literacy program, the wait-list group will receive the exact same motor and pre-literacy intervention.
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Other
Keywords: Motor Skills; Pre-literacy Skills; Early Intervention