- NO LONGER A HUNCH, BUT A CERTAINTY
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Gillian Cumiskey, Shane Kearney and daughter Mia.
Photos by
Preparing for Life staff.
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Breaking scientific news from the world of community development: An early childhood intervention programme in north Dublin has made proven that early childhood supports truly do work.
The team behind ‘Preparing for Life’ worked away beneath the radar for years, like many community workers do. However, they agreed to talk to 'Changing Ireland' and now feature as the lead in our Spring edition.
Alongside Ben Panter's feature, we've added news here from Northside Partnership. Three upcoming events were today announced to further explain the findings. We also include here an interview with family mentor Sarah Jane Leonard who has been involved in 'Preparing for Life' from the beginning.
Making history with children in north Dublin
Editorial by Allen Meagher
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| Allen Meagher, 'Changing Ireland' |
‘Preparing for Life’ is a community initiative
conducted by the Northside Partnership and funded by the Department of Children
and Youth Affairs and Atlantic Philanthropies. What makes it different is that,
every step of the way, the work is being evaluated by a team from UCD’s Geary
Institute.
And they have proven beyond doubt that early childhood
support is worth its weight in gold.
For anyone working in early childhood care or
development, they have scientifically measured the impact of your work. If you
had a feeling you were having an impact but couldn’t swear on it before, now
you have the proof. Presuming you’re doing the kind of things they do in north
Dublin.
Tremendous detail is provided in analysing the results
and everything is rigorously backed up by science.
The findings to date should be of interest to
everyone, from parents to national policy-makers, programme-designers, trainers
and lecturers, and community-based projects seeking evidence to support grant
applications. They are of interest to students and indeed anyone wishing to
better understand children’s development.
The material is all available online. It’s dense, yet
insightful, and supported by data throughout. It will be immensely important in
guiding us in the long-term.
The project focuses, for instance, on cognitive
development and how best they can nurture their children in a challenging
environment.
The programme recognises that,
“Disadvantage is often associated with lower cognitive resources which can be a
difficult intergenerational cycle to break.”
On this issue, the team have made a
breakthrough. Their interventions are working. Children receiving support show
better cognitive outcomes and this is but one example.
Early childhood interventions can be better targetted as
proof emerges about what works best. It should now also be easier to campaign
for increased funding to help young children grow and develop to their full
potential.
PROOF THAT
EARLY CHILDHOOD INTERVENTION WORKS
- Study has “important policy consequences”
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| Ben Panter, journalist |
BY BEN PANTER
A
pioneering project - conducted by the Northside Partnership in Dublin and
evaluated by UCD - is Ireland’s biggest random control study into the effects
of intervention in early childhood. It involves 200 families, has been running
for nine years and supports social, emotional and behavioural development,
literacy, physical health and cognitive health.
It has also produced evidence that
early intervention works. The latest research
- published in January - documents outcomes for children who have
participated in the programme from birth up to age four..
The need locally for early
childhood intervention was first identified after a 2004 study (Murphy et al)
in the Northside area found that half the children starting school lacked
skills considered essential for education. The
target area includes all of Dublin 17 and parts of Dublin 5.
The study revealed that language,
communication, cognitive development and general knowledge were all areas that
needed to be addressed.
As fortune would have it, around
this time Atlantic Philanthropies (AP) had expressed a desire to invest in
programmes for children and youths in Ireland.
The Northside Partnership was asked
to submit a proposal and focused on early childhood.
“There is now a lot of evidence to
suggest that intervention is better than crisis management later on,” programme
manager Noel Kelly told ‘Changing Ireland’.
“Children are more likely to be
ready when they go to school, this results in higher educational attainment and
a decreased likelihood that they will suffer from addiction, mental health
issues and anti-social behaviour.”
Much of his team’s initial work was
informed by the research of Prof. James Heckman, a Nobel winner from the USA.
He was among the first to provide evidence that investing in early childhood
care was a most productive use of resources.
The Department of Children and
Youth Affairs got behind the Northside Partnership in supporting the programme
alongside AP with five years of funding (through the Area-Based Childhood
Programme).
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Above: Amber Ward.
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In a project that will have such a
long term impact on the lives of its participants, mistakes were not an option.
Preparation was essential.
It was not until 2007 that the
programme began in earnest and even then it was a further two years until
fieldwork began. Why did it take so long?
Noel said, “We had to be absolutely
sure we were not doing harm, yet we had to be sure it worked. The debate raged
long and hard and now we can say that this study can stand up to international
scrutiny.”
There were huge ethical concerns.
The programme involved Randomised Control Trials (RCT) which meant splitting
volunteer parents into two groups, all with different levels of intervention.
This presented a dilemma for those
involved with the project.
As mentor team leader, Val Smith
recalled: “There were concerns, we had two groups of families and all of them
would be needy, one group would get the services (but not the other) and we
thought that clearly that can’t be right.
“The answer to that was; we
actually don’t know whether the programme is going to be doing any good or not,
so we are not actually (knowingly) denying anyone anything.”
Orla Doyle, economics lecturer in
UCD and the principal investigator on the ‘Preparing for Life’ research team
emphasised the importance of the control group: “The study was unique in an
Irish setting because most evaluations of early childhood intervention were not
tested rigorously.
“The RCT evaluation design ensures
that any impact we identify has been generated by the programme, we can
definitively say that any outcomes are a result of this intervention.”
With these concerns addressed to
the satisfaction of the team, they began the arduous search for willing participants.
“We didn’t have a mandate, we are
not TUSLA and we had to win over parents’ trust,” said Noel.
“Parents volunteered, we had to
meet them in the maternity hospital which was very time-consuming. We had to do
all the footwork and physically meet them. It was successful though, 52% of
parents joined,” he said.
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David Burns, Gemma Dwyer and daughter Ava.
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It was not all plain sailing. Since
the programme is voluntary, parents are under no obligation to see it through
to the end, according to Val Smith.
“Five years is an awful long time
and it can be difficult to keep people actively engaged. There were incentives
to get people to sign up and people were joining because of that and it is
difficult to keep them engaged.”
A cost benefit analysis is
currently underway and the results should be known in September.
Meanwhile, the programme has
secured a second phase of funding and over 140 parents have already signed up.
The programme recognises that,
“Disadvantage is often associated with lower cognitive resources which can be a
difficult intergenerational cycle to break.”
“Regarding child development, the
programme was most beneficial for the children of first time mothers and the
children of mothers with lower cognitive resources,” state the researchers.
“This is a positive development for
the programme with important policy consequences,” they humbly point out.
For
more info, contact Melanie Murphy.
E: melanie.murphy@nspartnership.ie
T: 01-8771509.
W: preparingforlife.ie
Sample findings
BY ALLEN MEAGHER
Each family was part of a
group receiving either high or low levels of support and after an 18-month
period, researchers made the following discoveries:
·
Children in the high treatment
group displayed a higher level of gross motor skills.
·
They were less likely to be at risk
of socio-emotional and cognitive delay compared to those in the low treatment
group.
·
They had more appropriate eating
patterns, were less likely to be hospitalised and had better mother-reported
health.
·
Mothers in the high treatment group
were more likely to have positive interactions with their children.
·
The home environment was more
likely to be appropriate and safe for those in the high treatment group, most
notably in the realms of appropriate behaviours toward children, overall health
and safety of the environment and the availability of age-appropriate learning
materials.
·
Download the 18 months report, a
PDF, here: http://bit.ly/1VJEtZU
So, what
kind of support is provided?
For example, children internalise and externalise
problems. As well as measuring this, the team provided parents with ‘Tip
Sheets’ to help them encourage their children to express emotions. This aimed
“to offset children’s communication problems which, if left unchecked, could
lead to clinical levels of internalising or externalising behaviours.”
At 48 months, results generally - from 217 interviews
- were less stark than before.
Children in the high level support group did
nonetheless clearly demonstrate “positive programme effects in the areas of
cognitive development, behaviour, and fine motor skills”.
There was “some evidence of consistency over time,
particularly in the areas of cognitive development, behaviour and
age-appropriate skills”, the researchers said.
However, some of the positive effects on children’s
behaviour observed at both 24 and 36 months were no longer evident at 48
months.
The research team partly attributed this to flagging
interest and involvement in the fourth year of engagement by some parents. The
studies continue.
For this, and so much more, visit the website. W:
geary.ucd.ie/preparingforlife/
‘Preparing for Life’ events to share their good news
In the coming months, Preparing for Life will host a series of
events to share the findings from the random control trial research project by
the UCD Geary Institute which has followed the journey of the original 200
Preparing for Life families since 2008. The research project set out to
determine whether the programme's approaches have helped to improve children's
school readiness.
- The
following three updates were first published on April 13, 2016, in Northside
Partnership’s newsletter.
1. Research Seminars at the Mansion House, May 17th:
A series of short seminars will provide an
overview of specific aspects of the Preparing for Life study beginning with
"Preparing for Life - Results for Children at 48 Months" on Tuesday,
17th May from 11am to 1pm. A second seminar will focus on the "Children's
Profile at School Entry Study & Child Health Results" and will take
place on Wednesday, 22nd June from 11am to 1pm. To register, email melanie.murphy@nspartnership.ie.
2. Academic Conference at UCD, Aug 31st:
"Preparing for Life - The Results"
is a one-day academic conference that will provide a more detailed insight into
all aspects of the Preparing for Life study since 2008 together with keynote
addresses from Professor Richard Tremblay of the University of Montreal / UCD
and Professor Hirokazu Yoshikawa of New York University. It will take place on
Wednesday, 31st August from 9am to 3.30pm. Click
here to register.
3. Community Celebration in Darndale, 1st week in
September:
The research launch calendar will culminate
with a special community event in the first week of September in Darndale
Community Hall (a final date is yet to be confirmed). This event will focus on
thanking the 200 families who took part in the study together with all of the
project's partners and supporters within the community.
1-to-1 INTERVIEW
- with Sarah Jane Leonard, Family Mentor (pictured)
Sarah Jane
Leonard is a Family Mentor with Preparing for Life's Home Visiting programme.
She has worked with Northside Partnership for 20 years and with Preparing for
Life since 2008. Mentors work alongside families from pregnancy to when the
child starts school. They provide information on child development and
parenting, with the aim of improving school readiness. Below, she describes
what this role entails.
- This
interview was originally published on April 13, 2016, in Northside
Partnership’s newsletter.
Describe an average day?
Most days are 8.30am – 4.30pm. I divide my
time between our Darndale and Coolock office, but primarily my work is in the
family's home. On a typical day I have up to four appointments with my
families who are mostly pregnant women and mothers with young children.
Depending on their preferences, we meet in their home or a neutral spot like a
coffee shop. I also sometimes meet clients in the evening, if they work
during the day
The aim of the home visits is to support the
parents to be proactive in their parenting role and in meeting the needs of
their child. Key child development and parenting issues are addressed using a
set of PFL-developed Tip Sheets. We have developed these based on current
research and guidelines and we hand them to the parents at each visit. Parents
can ask me anything about parenting and child development but I remind them
that they are the expert. Boundaries are essential to this role. I also
deliver the Triple P programme which helps parents with positive parenting
strategies.
There is also paperwork involved in my role so
when I go back to the office I need to maintain case files on our database. On
occasion, I also link in with other services working with a family to ensure
that all agencies are working together and that everything is transparent.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
I am very passionate and committed to what I
do. I love my job, every day is different. The best part is when I see parents
making changes and acknowledging that change.
A fundamental part of my job is building
relationships based on mutual respect and confidentiality. As mentors, we never
tell them what to do. We give parents information so that they can make more
informed choices and decisions about their children. We like to encourage
parents to enjoy their children and to talk to them.
What personal characteristics should a family mentor have?
I
listen and never judge, which helps build relationships. One thing I know is
important and that works well is prompting parents to come up with solutions
for themselves. Also to give praise and feedback, if necessary. I ask questions
like what do you think you could have done differently there? That’s part of
our training. One size doesn’t fit all, in helping a family to reach their own
solution.
FULL TEXT OF BEN PANTER'S ARTICLE, as published in the current edition of 'Changing Ireland' (available through Easons):
