3-225 - The Washington State Innovation Cluster: Building Executive Function and Self-Regulation Skills in Caregivers and Children

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

There is growing evidence that the foundations of executive function and self-regulation skills—which are essential for academic success, mental health, and effective caregiving—can be undermined when unresponsive caregiving fails to provide buffering protection against significant stress in the early childhood years (Center on the Developing Child, 2011; Shonkoff, et. al, 2012). Energized by the need for new ways to build executive function skills in caregivers and children facing adversity, a group of researchers, program sites, and practitioners have come together to co-design, test, and scale innovative science-based intervention strategies. This network, known as the Washington State Innovation Cluster, utilizes co-creation, collective pilot testing, and a shared data repository to foster rapid-cycle learning and continuous feedback. This symposium describes three of the Cluster’s current interventions strategies. The first paper will present findings from a pilot evaluation of Play for Success, a brief intervention to promote infants’ development of executive function skills through object exploration. The second paper will describe findings from two evaluations of SEACAP (Social, Emotional, and Academic Competence for Children and Parents), a parenting program that simultaneously builds parents’ self-regulation and parenting skills. The third paper will share findings from a statewide evaluation of a strength-based video coaching model that promotes executive function skills through building developmentally supportive teacher-infant interactions in childcare settings. The discussant, who is the research and evaluation lead for the Washington State Innovation Cluster, will describe key characteristics of the Cluster and lessons learned about co-creating scalable strategies in real-world contexts.

Sub Unit

• Prevention and Interventions

Chair

• Holly S. Schindler, University of Washington

Discussant

• Holly S. Schindler, University of Washington

Individual Presentations

• Play For Success: An Intervention to Boost Attention, Object Exploration and Problem-Solving in Low-income Infants - Presenting Author: Melissa Clearfield, Whitman College

• Preliminary Evaluation of an Innovative, Brief Parenting Program Designed to Promote Self-Regulation in Parents and Children - Presenting Author: Erika Ruberry, university of Washington; Liliana J Lengua, university of Washington; Corina McEntire, Educational Service District 112

• The FIND-DEL Project: Using an Innovative Video Coaching Program to Support Early Learning Providers - Presenting Author: Philip A. Fisher, University of Oregon; Melanie Berry, University of Oregon; Crista Scott, University of Washington