Making all the right moves: Clinician-led development and pilot of an evaluative toolkit for a community-based school readiness group program

Abstract

Introduction Children often present to occupational therapy with delays in pre-school occupations, with underlying skill deficits. If unaddressed, deficits may affect adjustment to school, jeopardising educational progress. Although evidence supports group-based interventions, evaluation can be time-intensive and expensive. We developed and piloted an evaluative toolkit to measure and report outcomes for short school readiness groups. Method We sought measures that were inexpensive, reliable and responsive to change in key domains. Skills and pre-school occupations were measured in children [ n = 58; mean = 5 years] before and after our school starters group program. Parents rated their children’s skills, school readiness and level of school-related anxiety. Results Our resource-efficient, multi-measure, skills-based evaluative toolkit reliably recorded changes in children’s performance in our school readiness program. Measures were adapted for groups. Children demonstrated improvements in skills important for successful school transition pre-post program; including static and dynamic balance, pencil grasp/control, pre-writing/drawing skills and name writing. Parents’ confidence in their child’s readiness for school increased, while school-related-anxiety decreased. Conclusion The evaluative toolkit proved responsive to change and showed excellent inter-rater reliability. Measures were practicable for groups, easy to administer and score, and engaged parents in their child’s progress. In our six-session School Starters group, important pre-school skills were improved in participating children.