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NCT Number: NCT06506097

Family-school Partnership Intervention for Early Childhood Education

Strategies for creating and maintaining reciprocal partnerships between teachers and parents are considered essential elements of developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood education (ECE). Particularly for children who are high-risk for behavioral, developmental, or mental health problems, effective partnerships between family and preschool are essential for promoting optimal classroom participation and learning outcomes. The current study is an uncontrolled (pre-post) feasibility trial of Family-School Partnership Intervention (FPSI). FSPI was developed using stakeholder input, is delivered by existing preschool staff, and aims to promote development and reduce barriers to learning among children with pre-clinical social-communication delays. FSPI integrates evidence-based practices (EBPs) from education (7 EBPs; National Association for the Education of Young Children) with clinical interventions for toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (12 EBPs at the educator-parent level and 8 EBPs at the parent-child level; Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions). Data will be collected across 10 ECE programs. At each participating ECE program, research procedures will be completed during a single school year. Selected ECE programs will include public school, Head Start, and private preschool programs. Participants include 20 non-teaching support staff (1-2 per program; e.g., director, principal, education-coordinator), 30 lead teachers (2-4 per program), and 60 children with social-communication deficits (two per teacher). Data collection will focus on feasibility data (enrollment, attendance, attrition, data completion), observational measures of implementation fidelity (at the educator-parent and parent-child level), and mixed methods to evaluate educator and parent acceptability and satisfaction and identify implementation drivers/barriers. This research will prepare a large, multi-site hybrid trial to evaluate the effectiveness of FSPI for promoting social-communication skills and kindergarten readiness, in addition to factors that mediate the relation between FSPI delivery and fidelity (implementation drivers/barriers).

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Key information

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder Autistic Disorder Child Development Disorders, Pervasive Mental Disorders Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Age range

2 year–6 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

UNT

Denton, Texas, 76203, United States

Location status: Recruiting

Location contact

Michael Siller, PhD

CONTACT

[email protected]

9405654596

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • currently attending classroom of participating preschool teacher.
  • nominated by teacher as child with elevated levels of social-communication challenges

Exclusion criteria

  • n/a

Treatment and study plan

Family-school Partnership Intervention (FSPI)

Behavioral

FSPI includes implementation activities across multiple levels.

FSPI Planning Team Meetings will be held monthly to plan project activities, practice staff and parent coaching strategies, and troubleshoot implementation challenges.

FSPI Staff Training (3 hours) will be provided during a single professional development day (3 hours), and attended by members of the FSPI Planning Team and teachers.

FSPI Playgroups. Over the course of the school year, each parent-child dyad will be invited to participate in three FSPI Playgroup events. Typically, teachers from two classrooms will collaborate in hosting playgroup events, and each playgroup will be attended by four parent-child dyads (i.e., two per classroom). Teachers will be provided with a curriculum and learning outcomes to target.

FSPI Debrief Meetings are held after each FSPI Playgroup to debrief, reflect, and improve FSPI implementation.

Primary outcomes

  1. Feasibility benchmark - Enrollment

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 year

    Throughout we will collect administrative data on enrollment. Data will be judged against pre-specified feasibility criteria: Enrollment (20 non-teaching staff, 30 teachers, 60 parents) will meet 100% of target.

  2. Feasibility benchmark - FSPI Completion

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 year

    Throughout we will collect administrative data on attrition. Data will be judged against pre-specified feasibility criteria: % of parents completing the intervention. Benchmarks: >80% for FSPI completion, >75% for session attendance (parents), and >80% for measure completion (staff, parents).

  3. Feasibility benchmark - Session Attendance

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 year

    Throughout we will collect administrative data on session attendance. Data will be judged against pre-specified feasibility criteria: % of sessions completed by preschool staff and parents. Benchmarks: >75% for session attendance.

  4. Feasibility benchmark - Measure Completion

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 year

    Throughout we will collect administrative data on data collection components. Data will be judged against pre-specified feasibility criteria: % of measures completed by preschool staff and parents: Benchmarks: >80%.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Student-Teacher Relationship Scale

    Time frame: baseline, exit

    The STRS is rated by teachers (Pianta, 1992; 15 items) and provides subscales for closeness and conflict.

  2. Child-Parent Relationship Scale

    Time frame: baseline, exit

    The CPRS is rated by parents (Driscoll & Pianta, 2011; 15 items) and provides subscales for closeness and conflict.

  3. Parent-Teacher Relationship Scale

    Time frame: baseline, exit

    The PTRS is rated by both parents and teachers (Vickers & Minke, 1995; 24 items) and provides five subscales: (1) affiliation & support, (2) dependability & availability, (3) shared expectations & beliefs, (4) sharing of emotions, and (5) sharing of information.

  4. Social Skills Improvement System-Social Emotional Learning Edition-Rating Form

    Time frame: baseline, exit

    The SSIS-SEL Edition RF (Gresham & Elliot, 2017; 58 items) is rated by teachers. It is a normed measure aligned with the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning framework (CASEL, 2013).

  5. Acceptability of Intervention Measure, Intervention Appropriateness Measure, Feasibility of Intervention Measure

    Time frame: exit only

    These three measures (AIM, IAM, FIM; Weiner et al., 2017; 12-items total) are rated by parents, teachers, and non-teaching staff. They evaluate feasibility, acceptability, and appropriateness benchmarks using a brief battery of implementation measures. Scores range from 1 to 5, and the benchmark will be set at >3.5 (scores of 3 and 4 correspond to "neither agree nor disagree" and "agree").

  6. Observational coding of child active engagement and parent/teacher implementation fidelity

    Time frame: throughout the intervention period (at each intervention session)

    These will be coded from video-recorded FSPI Playgroup recordings using observational measures derived from the Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention (NDBI) framework (Edmunds et al., 2022).

Study contacts

Contact information is provided by the study sponsor or research team.

Michael Siller, PhD

CONTACT

[email protected]

8505677474

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of North Texas, Denton, TX

Other

Collaborators

  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

Registry information

Official study title

Community-viable Family-school Partnership Intervention for Children With Social-communication Deficits in Early Childhood Education

Important dates

Study start
2024
Primary completion
2026
Study completion
2026
First posted
Jul 17, 2024
Registry last updated
Feb 17, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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