The Efficacy of a Home-School Intervention for Preschoolers With Challenging Behaviors: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Preschool First Step to Success.
Six weeks of Preschool First Step to Success boosts preschoolers' social skills and trims problem behavior more than usual preschool alone.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers tested Preschool First Step to Success (PFS) in a real-world trial. The program pairs a classroom coach with home parent training for 3- to 5-year-olds who show big behavior problems.
Kids were randomly placed in PFS or usual preschool. Teachers and parents got six weeks of coaching, then the team tracked social skills and problem behavior.
What they found
PFS gave medium-to-large jumps in teacher-rated social skills. Problem behaviors fell by a small-to-medium amount compared with usual care.
In plain words, the kids played better with peers and followed routines more often.
How this fits with other research
Gunning et al. (2020) asked parents to run the Preschool Life Skills program at home without a teacher piece. They saw the same skill gains and behavior drops, showing parents alone can carry the load.
Capio et al. (2013) used the Prevent-Teach-Reinforce model in single-case style with two families. Both studies cut problem behavior at home, backing the idea that brief parent coaching works.
Adkins et al. (1997) got large drops in aggression with a simple smiley-face response-cost token system. PFS adds social-skill teaching, so the two approaches can stack rather than compete.
Why it matters
You can pitch PFS as a low-dose, high-impact option to preschool teams. Six weeks of coach visits plus home practice beats months of pull-out therapy. Use the Gunning finding to reassure administrators: if coaching fades, parents can keep the program alive.
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Map your most disruptive preschoolers, then ask the teacher if you can trial PFS coaching for six weeks.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The field of early intervention is currently faced with the challenge of reducing the prevalence of antisocial behavior in children. Longitudinal outcomes research indicates that increased antisocial behavior and impairments in social competence skills during the preschool years often serve as harbingers of future adjustment problems in a number of domains including mental health, interpersonal relations, and academic achievement. This article reports the results of a cross-site randomized controlled trial, in which 128 preschool children with challenging behaviors were assigned to either a Preschool First Step to Success (PFS) intervention (i.e., experimental) or a usual-care (i.e., control) group. Regression analyses indicated that children assigned to the Preschool First Step intervention had significantly higher social skills, and significantly fewer behavior problems, across a variety of teacher- and parent-reported measures at postintervention. Effect sizes for teacher-reported effects ranged from medium to large across a variety of social competency indicators; effect sizes for parent-reported social skills and problem behaviors were small to medium, respectively. These results suggest that the preschool adaptation of the First Step intervention program provides early intervention participants, staff, and professionals with a viable intervention option to address emerging antisocial behavior and externalizing behavior disorders prior to school entry.
Journal of early intervention, 2014 · doi:10.1017/S0954579408000333