Journal Article

Promoting Academic and Social-Emotional School Readiness: The Head Start REDI Program

Gest, Scott D., Nelson, Keith E., Greenberg, Mark T., Domitrovich, Celene E., Gill, Sukhdeep, Nix, Robert L., Welsh, Janet A., Bierman, Karen L., Blair, Clancy

2008

Overview

Forty-four Head Start classrooms were randomly assigned to enriched intervention (Head Start REDI—Research-based, Developmentally Informed) or \"usual practice\" conditions. The intervention involved brief lessons, \"handson\" extension activities, and specific teaching strategies linked empirically with the promotion of: (a) social-emotional competencies and (b) language development and emergent literacy skills. Take-home materials were provided to parents to enhance skill development at home. Multimethod assessments of three hundred and fifty-six 4-year-old children tracked their progress over the course of the 1-year program. Results revealed significant differences favoring children in the enriched intervention classrooms on measures of vocabulary, emergent literacy, emotional understanding, social problem solving, social behavior, and learning engagement. Implications are discussed for developmental models of school readiness and for early educational programs and policies.

• Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Inc,Wiley-Blackwell,Blackwell Publishing,Oxford University Press
• Subject: Academic readiness / Achievement / Affect / Behavior problems / Biological and medical sciences / Brief interventions / Child development / Child Language / Child, Preschool / Children / Children & youth / Classrooms / Curricula / Curriculum / Disadvantaged Youth / Early intervention / Early Intervention, Educational / Early literacy / Education policy / Educational Policy / Educational programmes / Educational programs / Educational psychology / Educational Status / Emergent Literacy / Emotional Development / Emotions / Empirical Articles / Family studies / Female / Foster children / Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology / Head Start project / Human aggression / Humans / Intervention / Language Acquisition / Learner engagement / Learning / Literacy / Literacy skills / Male / Measures (Individuals) / Parents / Preschool children / Preschool Education / Problem Solving / Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry / Psychology. Psychophysiology / Pupil and student. Academic achievement and failure / School Readiness / Schools / Skill Development / Social Behavior / Social behaviour / Social Environment / Social factors / Social Support / Teaching / Teaching Methods / Vocabulary