Effectiveness Evaluation of a Comprehensive School Readiness Summer Program for Young Children At-Risk

NCT07445867 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: IRB-16-0101
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 124
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

This study is a program evaluation or open-trial study of the effectiveness of Summer Academy, a comprehensive summer early intervention program for young children with early learning and disruptive behavior problems (based on the nationally recognized, evidence-based Children's Summer Treatment Program) living in at-risk community settings. The summer program, which is funded by The Children's Trust, will be held annually from June to August from Summer 2016 - Summer 2019 at an early childhood center located in the Liberty City community of Miami, FL. Our aims are to evaluate how well the program helps to prepare young children for the transition to kindergarten and measure to how well progress is maintained at six-month follow-up.

Conditions

Externalizing Behavior

Keywords

early intervention; Summer Treatment Program Adaptations; ADHD; externalizing behavior problems; underserved populations

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (8)

• Behavioral Functioning

  Caregivers completed the Behavior Assessment System for Children, 3rd Edition (BASC-3; Reynolds \& Kamphaus, 2018). The BASC-3 is a widely used behavior checklist that taps emotional and behavioral domains of children's functioning. The parent version used for preschool children contains 139 items.

  From enrollment until the end of intervention at 7 weeks and then again at six months follow up

• Behavioral Symptomatology

  Symptoms of ADHD, ODD, and Early Conduct Symptoms were measured at each time point using the parent Disruptive Behavior Disorder (DBD) Rating Scale (Pelham et al., 1992). The DBD consists of 45-items that correspond with DSM diagnostic symptomatology for ADHD-Inattention (9 items), ADHD-hyperactivity/impulsivity (9 items), ODD (8 items) and Conduct Disorder (15 items). Caregivers rate each item on a four-point scale (not at all, just a little, pretty much, very much). Items rated as pretty much or very much are considered as positive, or endorsed, symptoms.

  From enrollment until the end of intervention at 7 weeks and then again at six months follow up

• Behavioral Impairment

  Caregivers completed the Impairment Rating Scale (IRS; Fabiano, et al., 2006) at all three assessment time points. The IRS measures the severity of impairment caused by children's difficulty across several domains of functioning (e.g., academic functioning, family functioning, relationships parents, overall) on a 7-point scale, ranging from 0 (no impairment) to 6 (extreme impairment).

  From enrollment until the end of intervention at 7 weeks and then again at six months follow up

• Pre-academic skills

  Through direct child testing, pre-academic skills were measured at each time point using the Bracken School Readiness Assessment (BSRA; Bracken, 2002). The BRSA is a measure for children pre-k to 2nd grade and assesses several school readiness domains (i.e., receptive knowledge of colors, shapes, numbers, letters, and spatial/size relations).

  From enrollment until the end of intervention at 7 weeks and then again at six months follow up

• Executive functioning

  At each time point, the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task (HTKS; Ponitz et al., 2009) was administered. The HTKS is a tool to objectively measure executive functioning executive functioning skills in preschool children. The HTKS has been widely used with good psychometrics (Ponitz et al., 2009; Wanless et al., 2011) and validated in a sample of preschool children with externalizing behavior problems (Graziano et al., 2015). The HTKS task prompts children to perform paired behavioral responses in the opposite way (e.g., when I say "touch your head" touch your toes). Scores range from 0 to 60, with 2 points for initial accurate opposite responses, 1 point for self-corrected responses, and 0 points for inaccurate responses. Higher scores indicate more developed executive functioning skills.

  From enrollment until the end of intervention at 7 weeks and then again at six months follow up

• Parenting Practices

  The Alabama Parenting Questionnaire-Preschool Version (APQ-PR; Shelton, Frick, \& Wootton, 1996) will be completed at each time point and consists of 42 items that are designed to measure parenting practices across five domains: parental involvement, positive parenting, poor monitoring/supervision, inconsistent discipline, and corporal punishment. Ratings of the items are made on a 5-point scale (never, almost never, sometimes, often, always). The APQ has good psychometric properties, including criterion validity in differentiating clinical and nonclinical groups (Frick, Christian, \& Wootton, 1999; Shelton et al., 1996) and has been used with parents of children as young as three years of age (Clerkins, Marks, Policaro, \& Halperin, 2007).

  From enrollment until the end of intervention at 7 weeks and then again at six months follow up

• Parenting Stress

  The Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF; Abidin, 1983) will be completed at each time point and is a 36-item self-report instrument for parents of children ages 1 month to 12 years containing three subscales (Parent Distress, Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction, Difficult Child) with Cronbach's alphas of .87, .80, and .85, respectively, and 6-month test-retest reliabilities of 0.85, 0.68, and 0.78, respectively (Abidin, 1983). The PSI and the PSI-SF total scores are highly correlated with one another (.94). On the long form of the PSI, higher scores have been associated with increased severity of conduct-disordered behavior (Eyberg, Boggs, \& Rodriguez, 1992; Ross, Blanc, McNeil, Eyberg, \& Hembree-Kigin, 1998). The PSI-SF will be used to assess the effects of PCIT on parent stress.

  From enrollment until the end of intervention at 7 weeks and then again at six months follow up

• Parent-Child Interaction

  The Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System-Third Edition (DPICS-III; Eyberg, Nelson, Duke, \& Boggs, 2005) is a behavioral coding system that measures the quality of parent-child interactions during three 5-minutes standard situations that vary in the degree of parental control (i.e., child-led play, parent-led play, and clean-up), as well as during during a shared-reading task. The convergent and discriminative validity of the DPICS categories have been extensively documented and the psychometric data are summarized in the DPICS manual (Eyberg et al., 2004). A copy of the DPICS-III manual is not included with this proposal due to its extremely large size (260 pages). The manual is not given to participants; it is only used when coding the videotaped parent-child interactions. The manual is available on line at www.pcit.org for review. For the current study, parent and child behaviors will be measured to examine changes in the parent-child relationship and literacy engagement.

  From enrollment until the end of intervention at 7 weeks and then again at six months follow up

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Parent perceptions of education

  From enrollment until the end of intervention at 7 weeks and then again at six months follow up

Other Outcomes (3)

• Program attendance

  Throughout the 7-week intervention

• Program satisfaction and treatment acceptability.

  At the end of the 7 week intervention

• Program Fidelity

  Weekly throughout the 7-week intervention

Study Arms (1)

Summer Academy

EXPERIMENTAL

All children received a seven-week comprehensive school readiness program adapted from the STP-PreK program (Graziano \& Hart, 2016; Hart, Maharaj, \& Graziano, 2019) that ran from June to early August over the course of three summers. Summer Academy followed the behavioral, social-emotional, academic, and recreational intervention procedures consistent with STP-PreK, including procedures and structure of staff training and supervision, but differed in programmatic aspects in several key ways that were made to meet the needs of the community. Caregivers were required to attend weekly caregiver groups following a modified School Readiness Parent Program (SRPP; Graziano et al., 2018).

Behavioral: Summer Academy

Interventions

Summer Academy BEHAVIORAL

All children received a seven-week comprehensive school readiness program adapted from the STP-PreK program (Graziano \& Hart, 2016; Hart, Maharaj, \& Graziano, 2019) that ran from June to early August over the course of three summers. Summer Academy followed the behavioral, social-emotional, academic, and recreational intervention procedures consistent with STP-PreK, including procedures and structure of staff training and supervision, but differed in programmatic aspects in several key ways that were made to be responsive to community needs. Caregivers were required to attend weekly caregiver groups following a modified School Readiness Parent Program (SRPP; Graziano et al., 2018).

Also known as: STP-PreK

Summer Academy

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 4 Years - 6 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• Children were:
• transitioning to kindergarten the following school year;
• had behavioral, learning, attention, or other social emotional difficulties, as evidenced by meeting diagnostic criteria for a behavioral or emotional disorder (e.g., Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder) or qualify for special education services via an Individualized Education Program (IEP);
• had the cognitive and language skills needed to appropriately benefit from the program; and
• be able to attend the 7-week intervention program with weekly parent training.

You may not qualify if:

• Child was not residing with their legal guardian.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Florida International University: lead
• The Children's Trust, Miami FL: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Florida International University, Center for Children and Families

Miami, Florida, 33199, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Mental Disorders

Study Officials

• Katie Hart, Ph.D.

  Florida International University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: February 20, 2026
• First Posted: March 3, 2026
• Study Start: March 16, 2016
• Primary Completion: September 1, 2020
• Study Completion: September 1, 2021
• Last Updated: March 3, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-02

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)