A Kinder Coaching Program With Community Health Workers "READY"

Children who enter school ready to learn are more likely to succeed academically. Yet, children from low income households often enter school behind their high income peers. The primary care clinic has an opportunity to promote school readiness (SR), as pediatricians have trusted, repeated relationships with children and families. In prior work, families of recent kindergarteners identified specific SR interventions for pediatric clinics to increase parent SR knowledge through Checklists and parent empowerment through Coaching with community health workers.

The research objective of this R01 is to assess the effectiveness of a high touch, Kinder Coaching Program, compared to enhanced usual well child care (eUC) [an SR Checklist reviewed by provider] on child SR in primary care clinics serving Medicaid families with preschoolers. The premise is that pediatric clinics are trusted, acceptable, and feasible settings to identify and address SR needs of families. The investigators will conduct a Type 1 hybrid effectiveness-implementation randomized controlled trial on Kinder Coaching with parents of 3-4 year olds in 2 safety-net primary care clinics serving families on Medicaid in Oregon (n=240; 120/arm) powered with pilot data to assess primary efficacy outcomes: child school readiness (Brigance III) and child social emotional development (DECA). Secondary parent outcomes (school readiness behaviors, confidence, resources, barriers) and implementation outcomes (e.g., delivery, fidelity, cost-benefit analysis) using the RE-AIM implementation framework.

Inclusion criteria

• Parent or caregiver is 18 years of age or older with no intellectual disability and can speak and understand Spanish and/or English. Participants unable to read will be eligible as data will be verbally collected by bilingual research staff.
• Child is between 3 and 4 years of age at enrollment and receives primary care at a study site.
• Child is from a low-income household on Medicaid insurance.
• Child has no significant developmental disability or serious medical condition that limits communication with the Kinder Coach. Children with mild developmental delays including speech delay, gross motor delay, autism spectrum disorder, mild cerebral palsy, and ADHD will be included to capture a heterogenous, real-world sample from primary care.

Exclusion criteria

• Parent or child with significant intellectual disability.
• Teen parents under the age of 18.
• Child is in foster care or other situation in which consent cannot be obtained from a legal guardian.
• Child with a significant developmental disability that limits participation including cerebral palsy, non-verbal autism spectrum disorder, Down's syndrome, global developmental delay, or other serious medical condition impacting ability to participate in a Kinder Coaching visit. Developmental conditions will be defined as children who screen negative on the Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) screener for developmental and/or behavioral special needs "above and beyond what would be expected" for a child of that age.