Family-school Partnership Intervention for Early Childhood Education

Community-viable Family-school Partnership Intervention for Children With Social-communication Deficits in 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).

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Family-school Partnership Intervention (FSPI)

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 70
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Michael Siller, PhD; Phone Number: 8505677474; Email: michael.siller@unt.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Denton, Texas, United States, 76203
      • Recruiting
      • UNT
      • Contact: Michael Siller, PhD; Phone Number: 9405654596; Email: Megan.Lukanuski@unt.edu

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

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

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Family-school Partnership Intervention (FSPI); Participants include 20 non-teaching support staff (1-2 per program), 30 lead teachers (2-4 per program), and 60 children with social-communication deficits (two per teacher). FSPI creates new opportunities for teachers to partner with families, particularly parents of children with social-communication vulnerabilities. Specifically, teachers will be provided with a curriculum, training, and resources to engage two families from their classroom in three FSPI Playgroup meetings, scheduled over the course of the current school year. During each playgroup, teaches will help parents practice simple strategies for promoting communication during familiar routines such as play, book reading, preparing a snack, or completing a simple chore.

Behavioral: Family-school Partnership Intervention (FSPI); 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.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Feasibility benchmark - Enrollment	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.	Through study completion, an average of 1 year
Feasibility benchmark - FSPI Completion	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).	Through study completion, an average of 1 year
Feasibility benchmark - Session Attendance	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.	Through study completion, an average of 1 year
Feasibility benchmark - Measure Completion	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%.	Through study completion, an average of 1 year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Student-Teacher Relationship Scale	The STRS is rated by teachers (Pianta, 1992; 15 items) and provides subscales for closeness and conflict.	baseline, exit
Child-Parent Relationship Scale	The CPRS is rated by parents (Driscoll & Pianta, 2011; 15 items) and provides subscales for closeness and conflict.	baseline, exit
Parent-Teacher Relationship Scale	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.	baseline, exit
Social Skills Improvement System-Social Emotional Learning Edition-Rating Form	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).	baseline, exit
Acceptability of Intervention Measure, Intervention Appropriateness Measure, Feasibility of Intervention Measure	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").	exit only
Observational coding of child active engagement and parent/teacher implementation fidelity	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).	throughout the intervention period (at each intervention session)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of North Texas, Denton, TX
• Collaborators: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): July 1, 2024
• Primary Completion (Estimated): July 31, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): July 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 14, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 10, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): July 17, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 17, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 12, 2026
• Last Verified: February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: autism; preschool; education; parent; Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Autistic Disorder
• Other Study ID Numbers: 7R21HD105168-02 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No