Evaluation of the Preschool Situational Self-Regulation Toolkit (PRSIST) Program for Supporting Children’s Early Self-Regulation Development

INTERVENTION: The Preschool Situational Self‐Regulation Toolkit (PRSIST) Program is a collection of low‐cost adult practices and child activities, to be implemented primarily by pre‐school educators, that are compatible with early childhood education and care contexts, routines and practices. The program is flexible in its duration, but for this trial will be implemented by educators over the course of 6 months. The program consists of four core elements: 1. Adult practices. Educators will be given a practice manual that describes nine principles that are believed to be supportive of self‐regulation development. Each practice is described on a single page, providing a description of the principle (e.g., engage children in problem solving), a real‐life case to illustrate its importance (e.g., a child reticent to engage in an activity for fear of being incorrect), and specific practices related to the principle (e.g., open‐ended questions). These principles and practices are further supported by a series of nine online PD videos (on our www.prsist.com.au website) that educators will view within the first two months of the program. 2. Child activities. A collection of 28 game‐ and play‐like activities have also been developed, based on: observations of practices at high quality pre‐school services; minimal modification of existing practices in high quality centres (modified to maximise self‐regulatory benefit); or newly created, but piloted by educators across a range of pre‐school services. The activities are each described on our www.prsist.com.au website, and are also compiled into a series of children's book as a soft entry into educators reading about and conducting the activities (i.e., each children's story has activities linked to central plot points, and then compiles all activities in an appendix at the end of the book). Educators will be asked to complete at least three of the activities, of their choosing, each week during the intervention period. 3. Parent newsletters. While the program is not specifically being given to parents to enact in this study, monthly parent newsletters over the course of the intervention period will help to inform parents about their child's activities, about self‐regulation and its importance, and give suggestions for how parents can additionally support the efforts on their child's pre‐school at home. Each newsletter is one double‐sided page. 4. Formative assessment of self‐regulation. Lastly, pre‐school educators will be given our new PRSIST formative assessment tool, which is an observational measure of self‐regulation that helps to structure educators' observations toward key areas of self‐regulation, and provides actionable data about a child's developmental progress. Educators' use of this tool will help the educators to tailor the complexity of the child activities to a child's current development. The tool, training in its use and reliability checks are all provided in our www.prsist.com.au website. Adherence/Fidelity: While the specific selection and sequence of activities will not be dictated (so that the intervention is flexible), we will collect information on which, when and how many times each activity is completed using a wall calendar sticker chart that is collected each month (also as a fidelity check). These will be self‐reported by educators in the centres. Parent newsletters will also be sent to centres each month, along with a brief check‐in phone call to centres, as a stimulus to continue and as a means to answer any questions that arise. CONDITION: Early child development Self‐regulation The program has been designed to be flexible (in response to the needs and demands of the educators working within the sector), low‐cost (so that practices and activities can be done in a range of contexts and socio‐economic conditions) and so that, if successful, it can be freely and widely disseminated (anyone can access our www.prsist.com.au website at no cost to be able to access the program in part or in full). PRIMARY OUTCOME: The other primary outcome is children's self‐regulation, as indexed by performance on the Preschool Situational Self‐Regulation Toolkit (PRSIST) formative assessment, which is a new observational measure of self‐regulation that takes about 15 minutes to complete (Howard et al., forthcoming). The primary outcome is children's self‐regulation, as indexed by performance on the Head‐Toes‐Knees‐Shoulders (HTKS) task, which is an objective measure of self‐regulation that takes about 8 minutes to complete (McClelland, 2014). SECONDARY OUTCOME: Another secondary outcome is children's executive function (inhibition), as indexed by the Early Years Toolbox's Go/No‐Go task, which is direct assessment that takes about 5 minutes to complete (Howard & Melhuish, 2017). Another secondary outcome is children's executive function (shifting), as indexed by the Early Years Toolbox's Card Sort task, which is direct assessment that takes about 8 minutes to complete (Howard & Melhuish, 2017). Another secondary outcome is children's executive function (working memory), as indexed by the Early Years Toolbox's Mr Ant task, which is direct assessment that takes about 8 minutes to complete (Howard & Melhuish, 2017). Another secondary outcome is children's school readiness, as indexed by the Bracken School Readiness Assessment, which is direct assessment that takes about 15 minutes to complete (Bracken, 2007). Another secondary outcome is children's self‐regulation, as indexed by parent‐ and educator‐report on the Child Self‐Regulation & Behaviour Questionnaire (CSBQ), which is an adult‐report questionnaire measure of self‐regulation that takes about 5 minutes to complete (Howard & Melhuish, 2017). At the educator level, a primary outcome is educators' self‐rated knowledge, attitudes and self‐efficacy (KASE) related to self‐regulation, as captured on the Self‐Regulation KASE survey (Vasseleu et al., forthcoming). This survey takes about 15 minutes to complete. One secondary outcome is children's self‐regulation, as indexed by parent‐ and educator‐report on the Child Behaviour Rating Scale (CBRS), which is an adult‐report questionnaire measure of self‐regulation that takes about 5 minutes to complete (Bronson et al., 1990). INCLUSION CRITERIA: Fifty pre‐school centres will be recruited to ensure a broad range of centre characteristics are represented, namely: National Quality Standards ratings (i.e., working towards, meeting, exceeding), geographic location (metropolitan and regional), and socio‐economic areas (Deciles 1‐8, according to SEIFA Advantage and Disadvantage indices). The sample has been selected to ensure representation across these variables, but it will not be fully representative of the population. Participating centres must also not be participating in other research for the duration of the evaluation year.