The Effects of an Intensified Summer Preschool Intervention for Refugee and Local Children in Turkey

• In Event: Teaching and Curriculum in Early Childhood

Abstract

Summer Preschools provided a 10-week contextually-sensitive early intervention program for 5-to-6-year-old Syrian refugee and local Turkish children in vulnerable border regions of Turkey. Implementing a custom-design curriculum to 2620 children in 140 classrooms, the project aimed to support cognitive, language, and socioemotional development in order to promote school readiness and well-being. Evaluation study used a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design with 711 children in intervention and control groups. Seven early development domains were measured. ANCOVA analyses reveled that compared to non-participation, intervention resulted in significant improvements with medium-to-large effect size in all domains: Receptive/expressive language, preliteracy/prenumeracy, emotion regulation, and social competence. Results suggest enhanced school readiness, resilience and developmental well-being among children. Policy implications for countries grappling with refugee influx are discussed.

Author

• Ersoy Erdemir, Bogazici University