Procédure de dépistage précoce des troubles émergents du comportement au préscolaire

1) Category:

• Tool

2) Issues Behind the Problem:

• In Québec, 15% of children between age 6 and 11 exhibit at least one internalized or externalized behavioral problem (Valla, Breton, Bergeron et al., 1992). They are at higher risk for developing other difficulties.

• Some preschool children with behavioral problems are not flagged, and there are several reasons for this:

o The desire to avoid labelling children;

o The difficulty professionals have in agreeing upon a practical definition of behavioral problems;

o Limited tools

• According to Kazdin (1987), after age 8, antisocial behaviors and serious behavioral problems can be considered chronic.

3) Objectives:

• Intervene rapidly with preschool children with emerging behavioral difficulties, whether internalized or externalized.

• Work on good behaviors at the beginning of the child’s school life in order to reduce the dropout rate in the long term.

• Minimize the time needed for early screening and the attendant costs.

4) Environment:

• Daycares and primary schools

• Families

5) Target Group:

• Children 3 to 6 years old

6) Key Words:

• Procédure de dépistage précoce des troubles émergents du comportement au préscolaire, coeuréaction, school-family-community partnership, tool, screening, prevention, preschool, internalized behavioral problems, externalized behavioral problems, behavioral problems, assessment, Commission scolaire de la Côte-du-Sud

This factsheet was taken from the following website: http://rire.ctreq.qc.ca/. Page 1 of 4

7) Description:

• This program is a French adaptation of the Early Screening Project (ESP) (Walker, Severson and Feil, 1995).

• This multistep, proactive screening protocol is a standardized tool specifically designed for preschool and screening for internalized or externalized behavioral problems.

• By facilitating the screening process, interventions are speeded up, thereby minimizing the children’s risks of developing other problems. Since the program is carried out with all preschoolers, the chances that a child who needs help will be provided with it are increased.

• In short, the Early Screening Program is a simple and effective tool with steps that can be carried out relatively quickly and inexpensively. This makes the program easy to administer to all preschool groups.

8) Steps:

I. The educator sorts the children according to their internalized or externalized behavioral problems.

II. The educator fills in the behavioral assessment charts.

III. The children’s behaviors are observed during two play sessions. Parents fill out a questionnaire.

9) Activities/Actions:

• 1st stage: The goal of this first stage is to provide the educator with uniform assessment standards as well as a structure for referring children to professionals, with a view to increasing the possibility of supporting the children who need it.

o The educator identifies the five children with the greatest incidence of externalized behavioral problems (aggressiveness, bullying, opposition, etc.), as well as the five children with the greatest incidence of internalized behavioral problems (shyness or excessive fear, passivity, dependence, etc.).

o These children are then classified from 1 to 5, according to the number of traits manifested.

• 2nd stage: The three children exhibiting the most internalized or externalized traits are chosen. Then, a number of criteria and assessment tools are used to measure the children against a set standard. This information is important in determining which children qualify for the services and in deciding which type of intervention would help them most. The following instruments are used:

o Index of critical events

o Scale of aggressive behaviors

o Scale of social interactions

o Scale of adapted behaviors

o Scale of maladjusted behaviors

• 3rd stage: Another partner observes the children first-hand during play time. This allows him/her to gather additional information on a specific child, especially on his/her social skills. The child is observed during two 10-minute periods to determine the proportion of antisocial behaviors displayed. Afterwards the educator meets with the parents to complete a questionnaire with them.

This factsheet was taken from the following website: http://rire.ctreq.qc.ca/. Page 2 of 4

• In short, the children are evaluated in different environments, by different people and using several different assessment tools. This helps to increase the probability of reliable results.

• Further to screening, adapted interventions can be established. The action taken can be as simple as having introverted students distribute material to the other students in order to help them come out of their shell. A more intensive program can be implemented in close collaboration with the parents.

10)Resources Required:

• Human resources:

o Educator

o Parents

o Member of the Intervention team

• Financial resources:

o A budget for purchasing the Early Screening Project, for tool presentation, and for training. For more information, see the grille de prix and grille des coûts approximatifs de l'observation cost tables. [in French only]

11)Roles of the Participants:

• The educator:

o is trained to apply the Early Screening Project and for better intervention with the children;

o targets the children in the group who exhibit the most behavioral problems;

o fills out the questionnaires;

o meets the parents several times to fill out the questionnaire, shares the results of the observation exercise, discusses which strategies to focus on at school (or at the CPE) and at home and follows up with discussion about the changes in the child’s behavior in different environments.

• The parents:

o attend the meetings;

o fill out the questionnaire;

o play an active role in the intervention process by applying new ways of behaving and of intervening in their daily routines.

• The Intervention team member:

o carries out the observation exercise;

o supports the educator.

12)Scientific Basis or Validity:

• A number of research projects confirm the effectiveness of prevention and early intervention and their benefits on the educational, social and developmental level and on reduced delinquency (Zigler, Taussig and Black, 1992).

This factsheet was taken from the following website: http://rire.ctreq.qc.ca/. Page 3 of 4

• In 1991, psychometric studies measured ESP’s reliability. The data collected clearly show solid and ongoing outcomes (Feil and Becker, 1993).

• Other studies show that the process of collecting information from different sources (parents, special education technician, and educator) reduces the time required for assessing behavioral problems and the respective costs (Walker, Nicholson, Kehle, Jensen and Clark, 1994).

• This tool meets many of the criteria established for assessing behavioral problems: measurement of the frequency and intensity of the problems compared to the standard for a given context, triage of internalized and externalized behavioral problems, use of several assessment and data collection methods (Gresham and Elliot, 1984).

13)Program Material:

• Screening tool

• Training

14)Additional Information:

• First introduced as a pilot project two years ago, this early intervention program was soon applied for all preschool children in the Commission scolaire de la Côte-du-Sud. In 2009 over 500 children participated.

• In 2009, the Award of Merit in the Pedagogical Innovation category went to the Commission scolaire de la Côte-du-Sud for its application of the Early Screening Program.

• The information contained in this factsheet was taken from:

o http://www.cscotesud.qc.ca/component/content/article/113- depistageprecoce/144-depistageprecoce.html;

o http://www.cqjdc.org/fra/pdf/5.06.pdf ;

o http://www.cyberpresse.ca/le-soleil/actualites/education/200902/20/01-829623- lutte-contre-le-decrochage-scolaire-tout-commence-a-la-maternelle.php;

o http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED395417.pdf .

15)Contacts:

• For further information:

o Madeleine GendronCommission scolaire de la Côte-du-Sud157, rue Saint-Louis Montmagny (Québec) G5V 4N3Tel.: (418) 248-1001, ext. 2205Email: esp@cscotesud.qc.ca

• To see the program, contact:

o Jean-Marc Jean, Director of Educational ServicesCommission scolaire de la Côte-du-SudTel.: (418) 248-1001, ext. 8426 Email: jeanmarc.jean@cscotesud.qc.ca

This factsheet was taken from the following website: http://rire.ctreq.qc.ca/. Page 4 of 4