DETERMINANTS OF CHILD OUTCOMES
IN IRELAND’S FREE PRE-SCHOOL YEAR:
‘NEW’ EVIDENCE FOR FAMILY SUPPORT
SERVICES IN THE EARLY YEARS
Kieran McKeown
www.kieranmckeown.ie
All Ireland Conference of HighScope Ireland Institute, Westport, Co. Mayo, 13th October 2014
PERSPECTIVE OF EVALUATION ON EARLY YEARS
A successful early years system is one which improves outcomes for all children
while simultaneously narrowing the gap in outcomes between children
This perspective is informed by internationally-recognised approaches to
assessing school systems generally, especially in OECD
Department of Education and Skills (DES) Statement of Strategy (2011-2014):
‘Provide a quality inclusive school and early years education system with improved
learning outcomes.’
Vision of the Government (2011-present) for every child: ‘Growing up in Ireland
means you have the best start in life available anywhere in the world.’
This perspective informed in the evaluation of NEYAI & Síolta QAP which, in
effect, was an evaluation of the Free Pre-School Year
FREE PRE-SCHOOL YEAR
The purpose of the Free Pre-School Year is ‘to benefit children in the year before
they start primary school’.
Free Pre-School Year in context of child’s life
% waking time in life of 4-year old spent in Free Pre-School Year
% waking time in life of 4-year old not spent in Free Pre-School Year
3%
97%
STUDY DESIGN
Child Skills
at start of Free
Pre-School Year
(Wave 1)
Child Skills
at end of Free
Pre-School Year
(Wave 2)
 Child Characteristics
 Family & Social Characteristics
 Pre-School & Staff Characteristics
DATA
Here is the sample of children and centres from the 2012/13 Free Pre-School Year
Children & Parents
Centres
Staff
NEYAI
258
49
553
Siolta QAP
190
21
206
Total
448
70
759
75% of centres are community-based compared to 25% nationally
This is not a representative sample
Children’s skills measured by staff using Early Development Instrument covering
five domains: physical, emotional, social, language & cognitive, communication
Extensive measurements of the well-being of parents
Extensive measurements of the personal and professional characteristics of staff
CHANGES IN CHILD OUTCOMES DURING THE FREE PRESCHOOL YEAR
Changes based on all children (448) in all centres (70)
0.59
0.18
0.27
0.23
0.16
0.2
CHILD’S STARTING POINT IS THE MAIN INFLUENCE ON
PROGRESS DURING FREE PRE-SCHOOL YEAR
S&E refers to Social & Emotional skills
L&C refers to Language & Cognitive skills
Child Skills
at start of Free
Pre-School Year
(Wave 1)
.78
S&E skills
.50
L&C skills
Child Skills
at end of Free
Pre-School Year
(Wave 2)
So what influences the child’s skills at the start of the Free Pre-School Year?
FAMILY IS MAIN INFLUENCE ON CHILD’S (L&C) SKILLS
Child’s Skills
at start of Free
Pre-School Year
(Wave 1)
.23
.13
Age
Gender
NESB
Child
Characteristics
Child’s Skills
at end of Free
Pre-School Year
(Wave 2)
.50
.45
Parent’s Social Class
Parent-Child R’ship
Family & Social
Characteristics
.07
Time spent
in Early
Years centre
No Statistically
Significant Effect
Staff Attributes
NEYAI / Síolta
Pre-School
Characteristics
GAPS IN CHILD SKILLS WERE UNCHANGED OR
WIDENED
Substantial gaps exist in the skills of children at the start of Free Pre-School Year
Gaps in skills at the start remain unchanged, or widen, with one exception
(NESB)
Some gaps are natural (age & gender); other gaps are social (social class &
parenting)
Socially-generated gaps are substantial, tend to persist and even grow (eg
PISA results for 15 year olds in reading)
Size of socially-generated gaps can be expressed by stating that one unit
change in a child’s social class (family ‘resources’ in widest sense) is associated
with half a unit change in a child’s language & cognitive skills … larger than most
programmes
AN ILLUSTRATION OF HOW FAMILY RESOURCES
INFLUENCE THE TRAJECTORY OF A CHILD’S SKILLS
Child’s
Skills
Gap
Widens
Child A
- with more family
resources*
Child B
- with less family
resources*
Before Free Pre-School Year
After Free Pre-School Year
Resources comprise social class, mother’s well-being & parent-child relationship
THE FINDINGS IN A WIDER CONTEXT …
HUMAN BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
‘Age 4 cannot be characterized as “early” with respect to brain development’
(Science, 2011)
INVESTMENT IN EARLY YEARS
Source: Melhuish, E., 2010. Submission to the Scottish Parliament’s
Finance Committee Inquiry into Preventative Spending.
RETURNS ON INVESTMENT IN EARLY YEARS
Source: Heckman, J.
SOME IMPLICATIONS …
ADDRESSING THE INFLUENCE OF FAMILY RESOURCES
Relationships and resources are the environment for a child’s development
In this study, resources refer to: the home learning environment, child’s diet, mother’s
education, employment, financial resources
These are the main influences on children’s skills and, by implication, on the
effectiveness of the Free Pre-School Year
 These are also the main influences on all school outcomes
Home learning environment refers to the quality and quantity of child-directed talk and
includes playing, doing painting and drawing, reciting nursery rhymes or singing songs,
reading, storytelling, playing, etc
Child’s diet (healthy and unhealthy food) is closely aligned with mother’s education,
underlining how parents create the food environment for children
Social class has an intergenerational character. Improving child outcomes will require
improving the education, employability and income of vulnerable parents
Poverty involves much more than lack of material resources, though also that. It
includes all of the above resources
In this perspective, the purpose of family support is to strengthen the resources to
those with less in order to enhance the environment for child development.
UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF PARENTS
Supporting parents is one of the ‘transformational goals’ in the National Policy
Framework for Children & Young People (2014-2020) which also contains a
commitment to a policy statement on Parenting and Family Support
Supporting parents requires both a narrow perspective (on the parent-child
relationship) and a wide perspective (on the social ecology of this relationship)
Child
Outcomes
Mother’s
Well-Being
Parent-Child
Relationship
NESB
Support
Network
Social
Class
REDISCOVERING THE ROLE OF PARENTS
‘The consistently replicated finding that parent characteristics typically explain a
greater proportion of the variance in child outcomes than the measured impacts of
program variables highlights the need for new intervention strategies that focus
more explicitly on strengthening the capabilities of parents and other caregivers.’
(Jack Shonkoff and Philip Fisher, 2013. ‘Rethinking evidence-based practice and two-generation
programs to create the future of early childhood policy’, Development and Psychopathology, 25,
1635-1653)
‘Parents are children’s first teachers and, to equalize the playing field,
governments need to invest in parents so that they can better invest in their
children. Gaps in children’s skills could be narrowed if less-advantaged parents
adopted the parenting practices of their more-advantaged peers, and many
parenting interventions aim to do just that.’
(Ariel Kalil, 2014. ‘Addressing the Parenting Divide to Promote Early Childhood Development for
Disadvantaged Children’, The Hamilton Project, Brookings, DC)
CONSIDERING A SECOND FREE PRE-SCHOOL YEAR
 This is a ‘commitment’ in National Policy Framework for Children & Young People (2014-2020)
 What happens before Free Pre-School Year has greater influence than what happens during it
which suggests that greater outcomes could be achieved by earlier intervention, either by:
extending earlier interventions in the family and wider social system; or
extending the Free Pre-School Year to earlier years; or both
 The positive influence of attending early years services prior to Free Pre-School Year shows:
the value of earlier intervention
existing level of quality in early years centres has a positive influence on outcomes but note
that usage of early years centres is positively associated with social class
 Improving quality and extending the Free Pre-School Year are usually linked but they are also
separately beneficial options
 ‘Progressive Universalism’ needs to be much more progressive than the existing Free Pre-School
Year in order to reduce socially-generated gaps between children
Free Pre-School Year will deliver economic returns found in landmark programmes if, but only if, the
investment is sufficient to produce a high-quality, multi-year, pre-school programme with additional
supports for vulnerable families.
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
 Children improved during Free Pre-School Year, proportionate to their starting point
 There was no change in the trajectory of children’s skills with the result that socially-generated
gaps in children’s skills tended to widen during the Free Pre-School Year




Family background – relationships and resources - is the main influence on child outcomes
Gaps in children’s skills begin early which is why much earlier intervention is more effective
The Free Pre-School Year is not early in child development terms!
Improving child outcomes and narrowing socially-generated gaps in children’s skills cannot be
the sole responsibility of the early years system, or even the school system
 The study was heavily influenced by the thinking of Uri Bronfrenbrenner and his ‘bioecological
model’. The results are also broadly similar to Bronfrenbrenner’s conclusion when he
reviewed early years programmes 40 years ago in 1974:
‘The results of this analysis point to approaches that are family-centred rather than child-centred, that cut across
contexts rather than being confined to a single setting, that have continuity through time, and that utilise as primary
agents of socialization the child’s own parents, other family members, adults and other children from the
neighbourhood in which he lives, school personnel, and other persons who are part of the child’s enduring
environment’
(Uri Bronfrenbrenner, 1974. A Report on Longitudinal Evaluations of Preschool Programs, Office of Child
Development, Washington DC.)
 Evidence for family support services in the early years is not ‘new’!
THANK YOU
www.kieranmckeown.ie