Parent Engagement & Child Learning Birth to Five: "The Getting Ready Project"

Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Nebraska Medical Center, in partnership with Lincoln Public Schools (LPS) ExCITE Program, LPS Student-Parent Program, Blue Valley Community Action Early Head Start, and Head Start Family and Child Development, Inc. are conducting a 5-year, longitudinal study of school readiness in young children at-risk for school failure.

The Getting Ready Project is based on strengthening relationships in children's lives, including relationships between parents and their young children, and parents and their children's caregivers and educators. The project will investigate the effects of a comprehensive (child- and parent-focused) strengths-based intervention on child learning, socioemotional, and behavioral outcomes, as well as on parent engagement behaviors, across the years birth to five.

The grant is part of a large federal initiative sponsored by multiple agencies, including the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Department of Education (DOE). This initiative provides an opportunity to educate legislators, policy makers, and the public that their programs and services are effective and have an impact, which may lead to future support. The project is based in the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools.

The study will:

• assess whether the intervention changes parent behaviors, including factors that may influence parents' response to services;
• evaluate the extent to which changes in parent behaviors effect child outcomes; and
• evaluate whether differences in service implementation leads to differences in parent behaviors and child outcomes.

The research team and project staff work with early childhood professionals in home-based and center-based programs to blend important developmental objectives with effective parent-child interactions. Specifically, early childhood professionals participate in training that will provide them information on how to strengthen interactions between the parents and young children with whom they work. Professionals in the intervention group receive ongoing group and individual monthly support from an experienced clinical team as part of the project design.

Graduate research assistants provide general support for the project, and collect standardized measures from children, families and early childhood professionals. The Graduate Student Consultants provide classroom support to LPS ExCITE preschools, and work with individual children, families and teachers to support behavioral change through Conjoint Behavioral Consultation.

For additional information on this investigation, please contact:

Dr. Susan Sheridan or Dr. Lisa Knoche

Project Key Investigators: Susan Sheridan (PI), Carolyn Pope Edwards (co-PI), Barb Jackson, Christine Marvin, Susan Churchill, Eric Buhs

Project Director: Lisa Knoche

Graduate Research Assistants: Danielle Bauer, Amy Chatelain, Keely Cline, Tara Hart, Doug Oxley, Sandie Potter, Marilu Martinez, Allison Osborn, Kelly Rasmussen, Ashley Rohlk, Anabel Tapia Marin

Undergraduate Research Assistants: Jessica Nokovic, Candace Behrens, Heidi Dostal

Student Consultants: Tara Hart, Katie Woods

Coaching Team: Alice Eberhart-Wright, Linda Maslowski, Jane Whitmer, Sue Bainter

Project Consultants: Tweety Yates, Jim Bovaird

Click here to view related publications and presentations developed from this grant.