Building Cognitive Behavioural Skills With StoryBooks to Reduce Emotional Difficulties in Kindergarten Years

NCT07425951 | Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: RG130/24
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 56
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

This research aims to ask (1) Are child and parent measures of coping skills, anxiety and other outcomes reliable (2) How feasible and acceptable is the proposed CB preventative program and protocol (3) Can a preliminary indication of efficacy for CB preventative program be provided.

Conditions

Anxiety; Coping Skills; Socio-emotional Well-being

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Coping Skills - Coping Questionnaire Parent Report

  This consists of questions with a likert type response ranging from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 7, measuring parent's perception of their child's coping efficacy in anxiety-inducing situations, which they nominate. In this study, the Coping Questionnaire is modified to have 4 questions, each pre-defined to be in keeping with each the four audiobook's anxiety-inducing situations. A higher score indicates a better outcome.

  Close out (Weeks 9 to 10)

• Coping Skills - Coping Skills Word Definitions

  This consists of 8 emotional target words that are repeated throughout the 4 audiobooks. Each word is linked to common elements of CBT which are found in each of the four audiobooks, these include relaxation in book 1, social skills in book 2, graded exposure in book 3, cognitive techniques in book 4 and psychoeducation across all 4 books. Each word is scored as 0,1 or 2 denoting incorrect, partially correct and correct. Higher scores denote a better outcome.

  Close out (Weeks 9 to 10)

Secondary Outcomes (5)

• Coping skills - Personal Story Generation

  Close-out (Weeks 9 to 10)

• Anxiety- Preschool Anxiety Scale

  Close out (Weeks 9 to 10)

• Maladjustment - Paediatric Symptom Checklist-17

  Close out (Weeks 9 to 10)

• Maladjustment - Children's Emotional Adjustment Scale

  Close out (Weeks 9 to 10)

• Social Emotional Learning - Social Skills Improvement System

  Close out (Weeks 9 to 10)

Other Outcomes (8)

• Feasibility and Acceptability Objective : AIM, IAM and FIM

  Close out (Weeks 9 to 10)

• Feasibility and Acceptability Objective : Fidelity Questionnaire

  Post Randomisation (Weeks 3 to 8)

• Feasibility and Acceptability Objective : Usable data

  Baseline (Weeks 1 to 2 ) and Closeout (Weeks 9 to 10 )

Study Arms (2)

LANG-arm

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

The comparator, LANG-arm, consists of 4 storybooks with accompanying audioplayer. These are provided to parents of participants to complete with their child. Each storybook explicitly teaches the story structure of problem, followed by goal \& action, and then by outcome, repeated across storybooks. There are 8 target words that are repeated and taught throughout the programme, which are different words from the CB-arm. Each of the 4 storybooks is read twice per week, resulting in 8 sessions, which are expected to last between 15-20 minutes each.

Device: Language

CB-arm

EXPERIMENTAL

The CB-arm consists of 4 storybooks with accompanying audio narration file. These are provided to parents of participants to complete with their child. Each storybook focuses on one cognitive behavioural strategy, namely relaxation, social skills, exposure and cognitive techniques, while all books include psychoeducation. Each CBT element is linked to two words for a total of 8 target words, which are repeated across the storybooks. Each storybook follows a 'feeling-problem-solution' narrative structure. Storybooks also contain descriptions of CBT elements, and questions guiding parents to practice these with their children. Each of the 4 storybooks is read twice per week, resulting in 8 sessions, which are expected to last between 15-20 minutes each.

Device: Cognitive Behavioural

Interventions

Cognitive Behavioural DEVICE

Cognitive behavioural therapy incorporated into storybook reading with an emphasis on psychoeducation, relaxation techniques, social skills, graded exposure and cognitive strategies, for preschool children

CB-arm

Language DEVICE

Storybook reading with an emphasis on specific word vocabulary and narrative structure serving as a control, for preschool children

LANG-arm

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 4 Years - 6 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• Currently be enrolled in K1 or K2 in preschool.
• Singaporean Citizen or of Permanent Resident status
• Parent of study's participant has to have read a book with participant at least once in the last 6 months.

You may not qualify if:

• Not currently enrolled in a child support programme
• Not currently receiving medication for mental health concerns
• Not currently receiving support from a Speech Language Therapist or Psychologist.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Nanyang Technological University: lead

Study Sites (1)

National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University

Singapore, Singapore

RECRUITING

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Anxiety Disorders

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Mental Disorders

Central Study Contacts

Shaun Goh, PhD

CONTACT

62196250; shaun.goh@nie.edu.sg

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Lecturer/Research Scientist

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: February 13, 2026
• First Posted: February 23, 2026
• Study Start: March 23, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): November 30, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): November 30, 2026
• Last Updated: April 15, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-04

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL
• Access Criteria: NTU and NIE researchers will be able to access the IPD. The study manual/protocol and will be shared on the NIE research data repository (https://researchdata.nie.edu.sg/). MPEG, WAVE, MS Word, SPSS (.sav and .por), comma-separated values, tab-delimited, and MS Excel files will be shared. SPSS, Mplus, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Media Player, R, and ideally Nvivo will be needed to read the files. The sharing of NTU-owned research data such as the IPD of this study is based on Creative Commons license CC:BY:NC, where others may reuse the data for noncommercial applications only and must correctly attribute the data source in NTU. Supporting information such as study protocol is being prepared for publication, and can be accessed once published.

Locations

SG (1)