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Carmel Rodgers

Talk to your childDoctorate Research Dundee University 2014

Abstract

Talk to your child–There were two aims of this study, the first of which was to examine what factors for ongoing measurement correlate with ‘School Readiness’. The second was to investigate the promotion of communication between parents and their children in the early years. The main aim was to contribute to enhancing communication between young pre-school children and their parents. The Infant Rating Scales (IRS) measurement tool was adapted from the original, which was a screening measurement for teachers used with children on entry to school. The study had an independent groups design with one independent variable (communication) and two dependent variables (groups and the IRS measure). Scores on the positive factors of the IRS were identified, as were scores on each of the subscales. The parents completed all aspects of the rating scales in the context which applied to their child. The results showed that certain levels of attachment correlated significantly with general parent/child communication, including children’s confidence in learning, children’s attitudes to other children, parents’ feelings about social interaction, parents’ attitudes to childcare, and total scores. Regarding differences in parent groups, some groups reported lower levels of parent communication than others. A further analysis investigated factors that influenced communication skills for mother/child bonding. A subsequent analysis analysed what factors underpin communication skills associated with early learning. These results were discussed in relation to the literature. The implications for practice and policy in Northern Ireland were discussed.

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Summary of relevant key findingsCriteria:–Is there bias within the studies?–Have these research studies got external validity / authenticity?–Do the study conclusions fit data: is there sufficient evidence?–Have the studies been assessed by others (e.g., refereed for journal, peer review, public domain)?–What generalisations have been made (e.g.. only where/when appropriate)?

Relevance:–High / Medium / Low Relevance?–Outcomes on (Attachment, language, Brain Development, Cognitive Development, etc.):–Relevant Studies / Lit. Review / Key Words (to look up):–Mentioned in literature review or references;–Key Ideas for the Literature review were– (e.g., attachment, mastery of learning, play, language, speech, relationships, social constructivism, –empathy, children’s voice, school readiness, developmentally appropriate practice, etc.)

School readiness and communication

– The report by the American Academy of Paediatrics (2008) provides a good introduction to the topic of school readiness and communication. In respect of the general principles discussed in the report concerned with school readiness, one might cite the frequently expressed view that if screening or whole-cohort testing is to be used, there needs to be some positive purpose. There is little point in such assessments if there are not the resources or the will to make the appropriate institutional arrangements and curricular modifications which have been shown to be necessary. Meanwhile, the very concept of readiness may reinforce the inappropriate view that children of a given age could or should be a homogeneous group. In fact, children who share a chronological age do not by any means all share an intellectual, emotional or experiential age, and it should not be a matter of seeking to attribute blame in the case of children who present with learning and associated needs or disadvantages. One might also ponder the question of who gains from readiness testing or screening if, whatever its content, it is not formative. One is reminded of reports of nursery schools which have established entrance tests, or of the emphasis in infant and primary schools upon maximally-early baseline assessments in order to present a picture of considerable ‘value added’, or of concerns about a restricted timetable and teaching to the test as the SAT (School Assessment Tests) season approaches.

Aims and Rationale

– Three broad queries are addressed in the literature review. Firstly, what are the most effective ways of encouraging parents to communicate with young children so as to facilitate cognitive development? Secondly, what are the barriers and problems encountered in facilitating parents to change their behaviour for effective interaction and attachment? And thirdly, how do educators measure children with effective communication skills for learning, on entry to Early Years’ provision, for school readiness?

– Research methods are detailed in Chapter 3, but they included 171 parents chosen from diverse backgrounds, with the Infant Rating Scale used as an instrument of measurement. Currently, there is no unified measurement of early learning skills for children’s entry to nursery or primary school in Northern Ireland. The main purpose of this study is to examine how parents can interact effectively with their young children to facilitate the nature of children’s learning for school entry. The thesis examines international trends in the literature for school readiness.

Measures used

– The IRS measure used involves a stratified sample of children aged 3-5 years who were selected at Stage One. Each parent filled in the rating scales questionnaire. Information from the literature and results from the current study provide the basis for useful suggestions or recommendations as to how parents interacting with their pre-school children can help co-ordinate early learning skills. These results were discussed in relation to the literature with the aim of finding new ways of persuading parents to interact more effectively with their young children and to aid communication.

– The parents were asked to complete all aspects of the IRS Questionnaire on Early Learning (Appendix 1). The aim of this questionnaire was to record parental responses to the 25 items within the seven factors and to track the results of cognitive growth of each child in the study, applying the constructs of these interactions between parents and children.

– Other studies have shown that levels of parental/child communication and interaction correlate significantly with a general communication ethic, confidence in learning, attitude towards school, feelings about social interaction, and attitude towards childcare and communication in play both inside and outside of the home setting. This study confirms that certain levels of parental communication are significantly related to particular aspects of progress in child development performance.

Study Groups

Table 1

1. Mid SES – No SEN 59

2. Low SES – Inc. SEN 11

3. Private nursery – Military & Disadvantaged 29

4. Sure Start/After School Club – Very Disadvantaged 26

5. Bilingual School 22

6. Rural School 24

Total 171

Measures: Infant Rating Scale Methodology

– Derived from Geoff Lindsay’s (1980) original IRS template, the questionnaire was designed to focus on three aspects: (1) communication, (2) training and support, and (3) outcomes, and was underpinned by the following design principles:

– The IRS questionnaire was designed to be similar to other evaluations in both Northern Ireland and Great Britain based on screening tests in the early years. The final questionnaire was agreed and issued on schedule in the week commencing 3 March 2009. The pilot study was commenced at this stage.

– This instrument (the Infant Rating Scale), which was also used as an assessment model, attempted to generate a valid measure to identify Early Years children who are at risk of poor communication and emotional difficulties by establishing a score for each child on the following factors:

– Behaviour

– Social Interaction

– Expressive Language

– Receptive Language

– Attitudes towards Learning

– Early Learning Skills

– Gross Motor Skills

– Level of Concern

Measures: Infant Rating Scale Methodology

– The Infant Rating Scale (IRS) looks at various aspects of a child’s skills at school. It is a self-report questionnaire with a five-point Likert-scale response format which takes approximately 20 minutes to complete. The questionnaire contains 25 items. It is designed for use with three-to-five year olds. It has a readability of 15 years, and in this study each question in turn was read aloud to allow for any low literacy levels. The 25 items have been grouped into 8 scales. Three types of scores can be obtained for each child: 25 individual item scores; 8 scale scores; and an overall total IRS score, giving a general picture of a child’s development. Parents complete an IRS form for each child, and each parent of nursery class pupils participating in this study completed an IRS for the children in class. The 8 scale scores were examined for the sample of 171 children for whom parents completed an IRS. An example of the IRS form completed by the parents can be seen in Appendix 1.

Analysis and reporting

– The set of schools that took part in the research, from which conclusions were drawn about the role of parent/child communication in early learning, was a snapshot of the type of Early Years education currently taking place in Northern Ireland. Subsequent analysis involved looking at areas of future relevance both to this type of child communication and to the wider research agenda.

– The data was analysed using cross tabulation techniques and statistical analysis. Descriptive analysis was prioritised, yielding frequencies, mean, SD and N. An exploratory Principal Components Analysis using an oblique rotation (Direct Oblimin) was performed on the IRS data where each participant had completed all 25 items of the IRS (N=108). Note that the Level of Concern item was not used in this analysis because it is a single-item scale. The data were deemed suitable for the analysis with Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin’s Statistic (KMO) = 0.79 and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity significant at the p<.05 level (df = 276; p <.0005). Seven Factors were extracted according to the Kaiser-Guttman criterion of eigen values greater than 1, which was confirmed by examination of the Scree plot. The pattern matrix is shown in the results section, with factor loadings <.5 suppressed.

– Kruskal-Wallis analysis was also used. This statistic is a non-parametric version of an ANOVA. It was used to assess the total differences between all six school groups for each scale of the IRS and the Total IRS score. Where significant differences were found between groups for a scale (this can be thought of as an ANOVA main effect), this was followed with a Mann Whitney U test (akin to pair-wise comparisons for an ANOVA), to see between which of the school groups scores differed significantly.

Results

– Descriptive analysis was prioritised because relevance was given to quotes on the pre- and post- mean, SD, and in the Results section. A series of Kruskal-Wallis tests were performed to test for a main effect (e.g., school group differences in the IRS scores), and if there were any significant differences this was followed up by Mann-Whitney U tests to compare each school group with the others. Gender differences were also assessed for each scale of the IRS using Mann-Whitney analysis. Each sub-section (e.g., Behaviour) also had a further column which averaged or summed the data for that category (e.g., Behaviour Total - BTot). As all the variables started with the most positive outcome, all of the items were in order of size. In each cell, the Likert score was inserted for that individual (one individual per row).The tables in the Results section display the summary statistics (in the form of mean rank) for each school group per IRS scale.

IRS Exploratory Factor Analysis

F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7

Behaviour A .645

Behaviour B

Behaviour C .647

Social Integration A .687

Social Integration B .768

Social Integration C .745

Expressive language A .724

Expressive language B .711

Expressive language C .788

Expressive language D .707

Receptive language A .683

Receptive language B .573

Receptive language C .506

IRS Exploratory Factor Analysis

F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7

Attitude to learning A .776

Attitude to learning B .888

Attitude to learning C .572

Early learning A .839

Early learning B .601

Early learning C .924

Early learning D .940

Early learning E .946

Early learning F .924

Gross motorskills A .639

Gross motorskills B .825

An exploratory principal components analysis using an oblique rotation (Direct Oblimin) was performed on the IRS data where each participant had completed all 25 items of the IRS (N=108). Note that the Level of Concern item was not used in this analysis as it is a single-item scale. Data was deemed suitable for analysis with Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin’s Statistic (KMO = .79) and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity significant at the p<.05 level (c2 =1369.851; df=276; p<.0005). Seven factors were extracted according to the Kaiser-Guttman criterion of eigen values greater than 1, which was confirmed by examination of the Scree plo

Interview with the rural parents

Cluster 2 Q1 Key Quotes of Cluster 2

Education on the importance of interaction

•What are the most effective ways of encouraging parents and carers to communicate with children?

•Themes Included:• Interaction with child• Family activities• Educating parents • Designating time for

family time

• Have family discussions, read them a bedtime story, play games

• Parents need to learn how to listen• Set out times to chat on a regular basis• Encourage family time – days out• Partake in activities both the parent and

child will gain something from• Demonstrate the importance of parental

involvement• Set out quality time with your kids• Parenting classes for those who struggle• Encourage hobbies that you can learn

and enjoy together• Explain the benefits of communication• Fun activity days/holidays, share

hobbies, write letters

Discussion of results

– The interviews and rural school case studies are presented at the end of the main results (rather than in the Appendices). The IRS provided a comprehensive instrument to help analyse children’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, results from the Sure Start/After School Club identified that this group of children, although targeted as disadvantaged socio-economically, did not show cause for concern in aspects of child development or learning. At the focus group meetings, these parents verbally showed commitment and support for the activities their children engaged in at After School Club. The IRS in this study provides evidence for how children are coping on entry to school. The results in school groups can act as baseline information, and as a structured means of looking at individual children’s behaviour or learning problems.

Recommendations

– As set out in the introduction, infancy attachment levels have a direct influence on communication levels between parents and children for school readiness. Although a complex longitudinal design would be required to examine this effect further, a future study may wish to expand upon Geddes’s (2005) research and examine any effect of attachment pattern on school academic performance at school entry. This small study may have provided a link in the range of Early Years studies, stimulating debate about or providing some answers to the complexity of factors that enhance school readiness in young people. Although there are drawbacks to using such a small sample these may not necessarily diminish the impact of the findings and results of this study. Like most things in the profession of Educational Psychology

Appendix 1 – Infant Rating Scale - Behaviour

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A. Temperament

Very even tempered; nearly always happy and calm

Generally happy and calm

Satisfactory Can be irritable and moody

Frequent temper tantrums; often cries; becomes hysterical; depressed; dramatic mood swings

B. Attitude to Teacher

Nearly always keen to please and do well

Helpful and co-operative most of the time

Satisfactory Can be uncooperative and unresponsive; disruptive on occasion

Often refuses to co-operate; can be very disruptive.

C. Kindness to Peers

Very considerate and thoughtful of others

Usually kind and considerate

Satisfactory Often rude and unkind to others

Always or nearly always disregards others’ feelings; very rude and unkind; often aggressive to peers

Appendix 1 – Infant Rating Scale – Social Integration

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A. Participation in Class Activity

Very keen to work with others when situation demands this and is completely at ease

Enjoys working with others

Satisfactory Prefers to work on his own most of the time

Never or rarely works with others

B. Social Integration – Acceptance

Very popular Well accepted member of peer group

Satisfactory On fringe of peer group; peers tend to shun him

Disliked and rejected by peers

C. Social Integration – Desire to Mix

Enjoys company of others very much

Sociable and has many friends

Satisfactory Tends to avoid other children

Very much a “loner”; rarely plays with children of his own accord

Appendix 1 – Infant Rating Scale – Expressive Language

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A. Articulation

Excellent articulation; very rarely makes an error

Good articulation Satisfactory Many words mis‑pronounced

Poor articulation; difficult to understand or does not talk; marked speech defect

B. Vocabulary

Excellent vocabulary; uses precise words to convey phrases and thoughts; uses abstract words with ease and understanding

Satisfactory Can be unco-operative and un-responsive; disruptive on occasion

Often refuses to co-operate; can be very disruptive

C. Sentence Construction

Always or nearly always grammatically correct sentences; uses all parts of speech correctly; sentences may have several sub-clauses

Few grammatical errors; uses long sentences with sub-clauses

Satisfactory Uses incomplete sentences; longer utterances usually strings of statements (e.g., “and I went out and I had a game and .”)

Often uses incomplete sentences with many grammatical errors; short utterances are common

D. Expression

Excellent ability to recount stories and relate ideas in a logical manner. Stories show well developed imagination and richness of thought

Good recall of stories; generally uses a logical sequence to recount events

Satisfactory Has difficulty relating a story in a logical sequence except with teacher’s help

Stories and news etc. Are poorly recounted with confusion of sequence of events; much help required to produce comprehensible story

Appendix 1 – Infant Rating Scale – Receptive Language

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A. Comprehension of instructions

Can remember and follow instructions very well; will perform extended commands in correct sequence

Above average ability to follow instructions

Satisfactory Will follow simple instructions but often needs help

Only able to follow three or fewer instructions; confused by instructions to the class

B. Understanding of words

Excellent understanding of vocabulary; comprehends a large variety of abstract and uncommon words

Good understanding of words appropriate to his age, plus some higher level word meanings

Satisfactory Does not understand many words relating to the stories or work appropriate to the class

Very immature level of understanding (e.g., unable to name all the common colours or basic mathematical shapes). Seems to be at reception level or below

C. Memory for oral information

Excellent memory; can recount past events in great detail and after a long period of time (1 year plus)

Above average memory for past and recent events

Satisfactory Below average memory; retains simple ideas and procedures from week to week

Very poor memory; does not remember things from week to week

Appendix 1 – Infant Rating Scale – Attitude to learning

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A. Concentration and Ability to Organise

Nearly always concentrates on task until it is finished; very good ability to organise self

Generally concentrates well on a task chosen by self

Satisfactory Concentration limited to 15 minutes on a task; problems with organising

Very short concentration less than 10 minutes on majority of tasks; tasks usually unfinished; very disorganised

B. Approach to Learning

Very keen to learn; always or nearly always interested in learning tasks

Above average eagerness to learn

Satisfactory Below average; tends to want to avoid learning situations

Always or nearly always tries to avoid learning situations; resistant to learning

C. Attention and Distractibility

Excellent attention to tasks; works well and is not affected by general classroom activity

Above average attention to task in hand, only occasionally distracted

Satisfactory Below average; tends to want to avoid learning situations

Very poor ability to attend to one task; highly distractible (e.g., by noise or movement)

Appendix 1 – Infant Rating Scale – Early learning

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A. Fine Co-Ordination

Excellent manipulation of building toys (e.g., lego and other materials)

Above average control and co-ordination

Satisfactory Awkward in fine control and manipulation, some letters poorly formed, lines tend to be a little wavy

Very poor fine co-ordination and manipulation; great difficulties manipulating small objects; manually clumsy, poor letter formation, spacing, etc.

B. Drawing

Large amount of detail, imagination and excitement. People ware well formed with proportionate limbs, fingers, clothing details. Spatial relationships are meaningful

Above average (e.g., well formed people; representative pictures have several components)

Satisfactory clearly recognisable people, but lacking detail (e.g., no fingers, feet, limbs roughly proportionate)

Limited imagination and execution

Picture lacks imagination; limited use of colour, etc, on abstract paintings. People are matchstick or series of blobs lacking finer details (e.g., face, hands).

C. Writing - Content

Highly imaginative, very good use of vocabulary and sentence construction

Above average vocabulary, imagination and sentence construction

Satisfactory Written work tends to be limited in content and structure. Lack of complex sentences using subordinate clauses

Impoverished content and limited amount; tends to have only one verb per sentence or much use of “and”; repetitive sentence structure or need to copy write

Appendix 1 – Infant Rating Scale – Early learning1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 6

D. Spelling

Able to spell 90% plus of the words he commonly uses. Good appreciation of dictionary use

Above average vocabulary, imagination and sentence construction

Satisfactory Written work tends to be limited in content and structure. Lack of complex sentences using subordinate clauses

Impoverished content and limited amount; tends to have only one verb per sentence or much use of “and”; repetitive sentence structure or need to copy write

E. Reading

Able to read at least two years above age level. Off a basic reading scheme. Good flow, intonation and understanding Very good word attack skills

Reading is above average level; at the end of basic reading scheme or equivalent or just passed this level

Satisfactory reading at age level

Reading below age level. Able to read common irregular words (e.g., she, house). Most phonically simple monosyllabic and some bi-syllabic words, but may need to sound out most of them

Very limited sight vocabulary - less than 30-40 words. Unable to blend phonically simple words (e.g., mat) at early stages of reading scheme, or his own books.

F. Number

Excellent grasp of number concepts and can progress quickly; can work independently and flexibly, without concrete aids (e.g., time to minutes, understanding of number patterns to 100).

Well developed for age (e.g., time to nearest 5 min. intervals; manipulation of money to £1; weighing in standard units).

Steady improvement in number concept but needing fair amount of practice with concrete aids (e.g., addition of T’s & U’s without carrying; time to quarter hours; number manipulation to 20 or 30).

Lacks flexibility; revision needed every lesson; confused by change of process; needs concrete aids (e.g., uni-fix to manipulate numbers to 20).

Number concept to 10 is still not fully formed; inconsistent recognition to 20; unable to work without concrete aids

Appendix 1 – Infant Rating Scale – Gross Motor Skills

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A. Gross Motor Skills (e.g., Running, Climbing)

Excellent ability, learns games quickly and excels

Above average ability in games and PE

Satisfactory Below average; tends to be awkward

Very poorly co-ordinated; clumsy; often falls over; bumps into things

B. Response to New Situations

Excellent adaption to new situations; shows initiative and independence

Adapts easily and with self confidence

Satisfactory Finds difficulty in adapting to new situations

Finds new situations very disturbing; becomes excitable, lacking in self control or very withdrawn

Appendix 1 – Infant Rating Scale – Level of concern felt

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A. Level of concern felt

Excellent general development; causes no concern

General development is very good

Satisfactory Some concern is felt about general development; overall development is below average

Great concern is felt about general development; overall development is slow