A study of behaviour management policies from ecce
1
A Study of Behaviour Management Practices in ECCE Services in County Louth Dr. Áine McKenna INTRODUCTION QUALITY ALONE DOES NOT IMPACT ON BEHAVIOURAL AND EMOTIONAL OUTCOMES: WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? Recent longitudinal research from the US has suggested that ‘quality‘ early childhood care and education may not have any reliable impact on behavioural and emotional outcomes (Keys et al., 2013). A very recent study conducted in the UK (Stein et al., 2012) found that the strongest predictor of behavioural and emotional outcomes came from the child’s home environment. In addition to this Stein et al., (2012) found evidence that centre based care may actually contribute to behavioural problems in ‘at risk’ children. Earlier findings from the EPPE study (Sylva et al., 2004) also revealed that children who attended nursery before the age of two, exhibited higher levels of anti-social and worried behaviour when they attended school. This study aimed to examine why quality childcare may be failing to impact on emotional and behavioural outcomes. This study argues that unless the approach adopted by a service is evidence based , it is vey unlikely to affect child outcomes. This study argues that the ECCE sector needs to adopt an evidence based approach to working with children who may be displaying externalising and or internalising symptoms. The ability to self regulate has been found to be the key mediator of resilient outcomes in vulnerable populations and it is important that this mediating pathway is targeted early in the child’s life. ECCE services offer the optimal pathway for implementing an evidence based approach to teaching self regulation that includes involvement of the child’s family. FINDINGS METHOD Sampling Louth County Childcare Committee made contact with the 121 service providers in their region and requested anonymised copies of their behaviour management policies. Forty percent of service providers participated in the survey and of this 40%, 23 % had attended training in behaviour management. Analysis The researcher conducted a document analysis on the policies (Rapley, 2007) . The analysis aimed to investigate if the outlined procedures were congruent with current empirical findings in relation to what works (Dunlap et al., 2006) in terms of delivering adaptive emotional and behavioural outcomes in young children. Functional Assessment Modify Antecedents Modify Consequences Teach Replacement Social and Emotional Skills Include & collaborate with the family Components of an Evidence Based Intervention Model (Dunlap et al., 2006) Therapeutic Components in the Louth Sample Train (N=28) No Train (N=21) Functional Assessment (FA) 0 0 Teach Skills 0 0 Involve families 23 14 CONCLUSIONS • Current Practice in County Louth Is not evidence based and therefore is unlikely to shape self regulation skills in young children • Developing an evidence based approach to behaviour management in ECCE settings In County Louth will hopefully mark the next phase of this research project •LCCC endeavour to implement and evaluate The Incredible Years Intervention Programme in order to address the issues high lighted by this research.
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Transcript of A study of behaviour management policies from ecce
A Study of Behaviour Management Practices in ECCE Services in County Louth
Dr. Áine McKenna
INTRODUCTIONQUALITY ALONE DOES NOT IMPACT ON BEHAVIOURAL AND EMOTIONAL OUTCOMES: WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?Recent longitudinal research from the US has suggested that ‘quality‘ early childhood care and education may not have any reliable impact on behavioural and emotional outcomes (Keys et al., 2013). A very recent study conducted in the UK (Stein et al., 2012) found that the strongest predictor of behavioural and emotional outcomes came from the child’s home environment. In addition to this Stein et al., (2012) found evidence that centre based care may actually contribute to behavioural problems in ‘at risk’ children. Earlier findings from the EPPE study (Sylva et al., 2004) also revealed that children who attended nursery before the age of two, exhibited higher levels of anti-social and worried behaviour when they attended school. This study aimed to examine why quality childcare may be failing to impact on emotional and behavioural outcomes. This study argues that unless the approach adopted by a service is evidence based ,it is vey unlikely to affect child outcomes. This study argues that the ECCE sector needs to adopt an evidence based approach to working with children who may be displaying externalising and or internalising symptoms. The ability to self regulate has been found to be the key mediator of resilient outcomes in vulnerable populations and it is important that this mediating pathway is targeted early in the child’s life. ECCE services offer the optimal pathway for implementing an evidence based approach to teaching self regulation that includes involvement of the child’s family.
FINDINGSMETHOD
SamplingLouth County Childcare Committee made contact with the 121 service providers in their region and requested anonymised copies of their behaviour management policies. Forty percent of service providers participated in the survey and of this 40%, 23 % had attended training in behaviour management.
AnalysisThe researcher conducted a document analysis on the policies (Rapley, 2007) . The analysis aimed to investigate if the outlined procedures were congruent with current empirical findings in relation to what works (Dunlap et al., 2006) in terms of delivering adaptive emotional and behavioural outcomes in young children.
Functional Assessment
Modify Antecedents
Modify Consequences
Teach Replacement Social and
Emotional Skills
Include & collaborate with the
family
Components of an Evidence Based Intervention Model (Dunlap et al., 2006)
Therapeutic Components in the Louth Sample
Train(N=28)
No Train (N=21)
Functional Assessment (FA) 0 0
Teach Skills 0 0
Involve families 23 14
CONCLUSIONS• Current Practice in County Louth Is not evidence based and therefore is unlikely to shape self regulation skills in young children• Developing an evidence based approach to behaviour management in ECCE settings In County Louth will hopefully mark the next phase of this research project•LCCC endeavour to implement and evaluate The Incredible Years Intervention Programme in order to address the issues high lighted by this research.
