Let´s Talk About Children Intervention in a School Context

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.

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?

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* First-grade students
* Students' parents
* First-grade teachers
* Sufficient Finnish language skills

Exclusion Criteria:

- Insufficient Finnish language skills