Presented at CRNINI conference in 2013

1. A Study of Behaviour Management Practices in
ECCE Services in County Louth
Dr. Áine McKenna
INTRODUCTION
QUALITY ALONE DOES NOT IMPACT ON BEHAVIOURAL AND EMOTIONAL OUTCOMES: WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
Recent longitudinal research from the US has suggested that ‘quality‘ early childhood care and education may not have any reliable impact on behavioural
and emotional outcomes (Keys et al., 2013). A very recent study conducted in the UK (Stein et al., 2012) found that the strongest predictor of behavioural and
emotional outcomes came from the child’s home environment. In addition to this Stein et al., (2012) found evidence that centre based care may actually
contribute to behavioural problems in ‘at risk’ children. Earlier findings from the EPPE study (Sylva et al., 2004) also revealed that children who attended nursery
before the age of two, exhibited higher levels of anti-social and worried behaviour when they attended school. This study aimed to examine why quality
childcare may be failing to impact on emotional and behavioural outcomes. This study argues that unless the approach adopted by a service is evidence based ,
it is vey unlikely to affect child outcomes. This study argues that the ECCE sector needs to adopt an evidence based approach to working with children who may
be displaying externalising and or internalising symptoms. The ability to self regulate has been found to be the key mediator of resilient outcomes in vulnerable
populations and it is important that this mediating pathway is targeted early in the child’s life. ECCE services offer the optimal pathway for implementing an
evidence based approach to teaching self regulation that includes involvement of the child’s family.
FINDINGSMETHOD
Sampling
Louth County Childcare Committee made
contact with the 121 service providers in
their region and requested anonymised
copies of their behaviour management
policies. Forty percent of service providers
participated in the survey and of this 40%,
23 % had attended training in behaviour
management.
Analysis
The researcher conducted a document
analysis on the policies (Rapley, 2007) . The
analysis aimed to investigate if the outlined
procedures were congruent with current
empirical findings in relation to what works
(Dunlap et al., 2006) in terms of delivering
adaptive emotional and behavioural
outcomes in young children.
Functional
Assessment
Modify
Antecedents
Modify
Consequences
Teach Replacement
Social and
Emotional Skills
Include &
collaborate with the
family
Components of an Evidence Based Intervention Model
(Dunlap et al., 2006)
Therapeutic Components in the
Louth Sample
Train
(N=28)
No Train
(N=21)
Functional Assessment (FA) 0 0
Teach Skills 0 0
Involve families 23 14
CONCLUSIONS
• Current Practice in County Louth Is not
evidence based and therefore is unlikely to
shape self regulation skills in young children
• Developing an evidence based approach to
behaviour management in ECCE settings In
County Louth will hopefully mark the next
phase of this research project
•LCCC endeavour to implement and evaluate
The Incredible Years Intervention Programme
in order to address the issues high lighted by
this research.