Small Group Intervention for Supporting Preschoolers’ Social-Emotional Learning during COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - School Readiness/Childcare

Abstract

A research-practice partnership was created between a university school psychology program and a low income, culturally and linguistically diverse early childhood center to address teacher and family concerns for preschoolers’ social-emotional well-being and school readiness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using center-wide universal screening of the Devereux’s Early Childhood Assessment (DECA), specific preschoolers were identified as at-risk for social-emotional delays, particularly in Self-Regulation and Behavior Concerns subdomains. To support the identified preschoolers, an in-person, small group intervention targeting self-regulation skill-building (emotional, behavioral, and cognitive) was created for 6 preschoolers across 2 classrooms.

Research supports the importance of self-regulation skill-building, as part of executive functioning and social-emotional learning, for school readiness and positive developmental outcomes for preschoolers (Bailey & Jones, 2019; Bierman & Torres, 2016; Graziano & Hart, 2016). Further, Takacs and Kassai’s (2019) meta-analysis of effective executive function interventions supports intervention that is engaging and embedded in developmentally-appropriate activities for young children.

This pilot study is being delivered for 30-minute sessions twice a week for 8 weeks using single-case design analysis to monitor child social-emotional skill growth and to determine intervention effectiveness. The accessible, visually engaging, and activity-based Zones of Regulation (Kuypers, 2011) and executive functioning Brain Games (Jones et al., 2017) were selected for small group intervention curricula. Although the Zones of Regulation curriculum is widely used in school districts and clinical settings, little research evidence exists for its intervention efficacy. Only a few small-scale research projects support the curriculum’s potential positive effects on children’s social-emotional and executive functioning outcomes for school-age (McQuaid, 2018; Yack, 2016) and preschool populations (Bettler & Dess McGuire, 2016). This tier 2 intervention study aims to add to the literature for the efficacy of the Zones of Regulation curriculum with preschool populations and to study child social-emotional and executive functioning outcomes following supplemental, in-person intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Teachers are completing the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool Edition (BRIEF-P) standardized rating scale of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive self-regulation skills and the DECA standardized rating scale for each child. The data will be analyzed for child outcomes and intervention efficacy following the conclusion of the present 8-week study. Preschooler participants are currently completing an emotion identification/application task each week. This task asks each preschooler to verbally identify the matching emotion and Zone for 5 randomized scenarios as part of the Zones of Regulation curriculum (e.g., tired, Blue Zone, yawning and waking up from little sleep the night before). Teachers will also complete a brief social validity questionnaire of the intervention.

Authors

• Clarissa Alfes, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Kristen Missall, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Miriam Hirschstein, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Andrea Brudvig, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author