Poster #179 - Effects of IEP’s and Parental Involvement on School Readiness in Preschool Children With Special Needs

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - School Readiness/Childcare

Integrative Statement

Individualized education plans (IEP’s) and individualized family service plans (IFSP’s) are important tools schools have to support the learning and development of children with special needs. Recent findings on these plans show that they do not improve school readiness outcomes in preschool children with special needs, highlighting a need for an improvement in these programs (Lee & Rispoli, 2016). Given these plans’ important roles, it is key to understand why these potentially beneficial programs are not having the desired effect.
The lack of impact may highlight the need of support outside of school that complements the work promoted by the IEPs/IFSPs. Thus, more research is needed on the impact of IEP/IFSP on children with special needs. Substantial research has shown that higher parental involvement on children’s lives leads to increased positive behaviors at school, as well as improvements in their academic scores (McWayne, Hahs-Vaughn, Cheung, & Green Wright, 2012). These findings point to parental involvement as a potential complement of IEPs/IFSPs.
In this study, we examined if having an IEP/IFSP had an impact on school readiness, and if so, how large was the impact. We also assessed if parental involvement moderated the effects of IEP/IFSP on school readiness assessed by both socio-emotional and academic scores.
We employed a sample of 686 children who were identified as having special needs at some point during Pre-K. The data was taken from the 2009 cohort of the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), with data collected during Spring 2010 and Spring 2011. The Social Skills Rating System and the Behavioral Problem Index were used to measure socio-emotional readiness. The Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement was used to measure each child’s spelling, applied problems, and letter-word scores. Parental involvement was measured through a teacher-reported questionnaire.
We found non-significant relationships between having an IEP and most cognitive school readiness outcomes, as well as having an IEP and all socio-emotional school readiness outcomes. There was a significant relationship between having an IEP and the Woodcock-Johnson letter-word score. However, we found that parental involvement significantly moderated the impact of IEP’s on literacy and math scores, showing the crucial role of caregiving on academic outcomes. Unexpectedly, these results show that having high parental involvement makes a difference on literacy and math scores only when children do not have an IEP. This result may be explained by previous studies indicating that children with IEP’s tend to have multiple disabilities (Lee and Rispoli, 2016). It is also possible that the instrument used in this study, with parental-involvement being reported by the teacher, does not accurately represent the full spectrum of parental involvement that may be occurring. The results of this study have implications for preschool centers and teachers in providing more supportive guidance and interventions to the parents of the children attending them.

Authors

• Hannah Nicole Pyatetskiy, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Manuela Jimenez, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Edwin J. Vazquez, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• José M. Causadias, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author