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Lisa Knoche, CYFS research associate professor and principal investigator of the Getting Ready Preschool Development Grant
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Getting Ready Preschool Development Grant PDG
Subcontract
Research Team
Principal Investigator: Lisa Knoche
Funding Information
Funding Agency: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—Administration for Children and Families
Subcontract from: Nebraska Children & Families Foundation
Award Date: Feb 1, 2019
End Date: Dec 30, 2023
Abstract
This project is funded by a subcontract from the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation.
Getting Ready is an evidence-based approach that focuses on strengthening relationships in children’s lives, including relationships among parents, their young children and the early childhood professionals connected to the family.
Developed at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the Getting Ready approach features interaction among families and early childhood professionals that occur during home visits, conferences, informal interactions, messages and more. It builds on culturally relevant family and child strengths, and is appropriate for all early childhood programs, including home- and center-based settings.
In 2016, Getting Ready was adopted by Nebraska Part C services to be used statewide as the evidence-based intervention to promote quality home visitation services for infants/toddlers with disabilities. It expanded into six agencies across the state as part of the Preschool Development Grant (PDG) pilot project work. Through the PDG expansion activities, researchers learned that early childhood professionals needed more one-on-one coaching to effectively implement the approach.
This project is designed to scale Getting Ready to center-based preschool environments.
Through the PDG, training is underway for 75 professionals working in Head Start, Early Head Start and Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting programs. Five Getting Ready coaches are training the new early childhood professionals.
After completing their day-and-a-half of initial training, each new professional will participate in three virtual coaching sessions. They collect and submit video of an interaction with a family — for example, a home visit or a parent-teacher conference — to their Getting Ready coach. The coach reviews the video, then collaborates with the professional on ways to enhance their interactions with families through the Getting Ready approach.
Also, new video training modules are being developed for use with early childhood professionals who cannot attend in-person training. The modules will mirror similar modules created as part of Getting Ready’s previous work with the Nebraska Department of Education.
Lisa Knoche, CYFS research associate professor and principal investigator of the Getting Ready Preschool Development Grant