Guide to Effective Programs
for Children and Youth

First Step to Success (FSS)

OVERVIEW

First Step to Success (FSS) is an early intervention program that targets kindergarten children exhibiting antisocial behaviors. The goals of the program are to enhance children’s social competence skills and school engagement in an effort to ultimately prevent children from developing more serious antisocial conditions. The multifaceted program relies on parents, teachers, and children in order to modify and, in turn, reward behavior both at school and at home. FSS is organized around three distinct modules which include a universal screening of at-risk kindergarten children, a school-based intervention, and skill-building lessons for parents. First Step to Success has been evaluated and shown to impact young children’s behavior problems.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Kindergarten children exhibiting antisocial behaviors and their families

First Step to Success consists of three modules. The first module includes a universal screening of a kindergarten population. The screening module can vary in its complexity and design but serves one major purpose. Teachers are asked to evaluate all kindergarten students on various measures of antisocial behavior. Ultimately, teachers identify those children at risk for, or already exhibiting, internalizing or externalizing behavior problems.

The second module includes the school intervention which is an adapted version of the CLASS (Contingencies for Learning Academic and Social Skills) program and is intended to target and correct behavioral problems. The school intervention is organized into three phases which span thirty days. Only one child per classroom can receive the intervention at a time.

The first five days of the program are known as the consultant phase. During this time, a trained staff member, usually a school counselor or psychologist, is charged with coordinating participant cooperation, consent and involvement with the program. Consultants are responsible for approximately two to three cases at a time, and meet with each child participant for 20 to 30 minutes twice daily. Consultants introduce the child to the CLASS methods, which include an extensive rewards/privileges system for moderating behavior and performance. Finally, consultants must ensure a smooth transition into the second phase of the intervention.

The second phase of the school intervention is organized by the child’s classroom teacher and covers days 6 through 20 of the program. During this time the teacher assumes control of the intervention, provides the child with group activities, and continues to reinforce the rewards/privileges system introduced by the consultant. The teacher is also responsible for engaging and communicating the child’s progress with his or her parents.

The final phase of the intervention is known as maintenance and runs from day 21 through day 30. This time is dedicated to reducing dependence on the intervention and transferring involvement to families. Rewards and privileges for appropriate behavior are used steadily less by teachers and adopted in the home environment instead. Eventually, parents are encouraged to substitute praise for these privileges.

Although FSS is organized into thirty distinct program days, a child must meet daily performance criteria in order to proceed to the next day of intervention. If the child fails to meet the criteria, they must repeat that day’s intervention. Thus, most children take approximately two months to complete the school intervention.

The home intervention module, known as homeBase, represents the third and final component of the program. homeBase begins at day 10 of the CLASS intervention and runs for six weeks. During this time, consultants meet with parents at home for approximately one hour a week. These six lessons are intended to help parents improve children’s school adjustment, competence and performance. The lessons involve guides and parent-child games and activities. Consultants emphasize ways in which parents can help their child with communication and sharing, cooperation, limits-setting, problem-solving, friendship skills and confidence.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Walker, H.M., Kavanagh, K., Stiller, B., Golly, A., Severson, H.H., & Feil, E.G. (1998). First step to success: An early intervention approach for preventing school antisocial behavior. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 6(2).

Evaluated population: Two cohorts of kindergarten children identified for exhibiting severe antisocial behaviors and their families

Approach: Kindergarten children were subject to a three-stage screening module as described previously. Children exhibiting severe internalizing or externalizing behaviors, as identified by their teachers, were selected to participate in the FSS evaluation. The study included a total of 46 children and was implemented over two years. During the 1993-1994 school year, 24 children agreed to participate (cohort 1). In the following school year, 22 children participated in the evaluation (cohort 2). Participants were 27 percent female, 7 percent were of racial/ethnic minorities, and 37 percent were classified as low-income. Thirty-three children qualified in the clinical range on measures of aggression.

Children in each cohort were randomly assigned to either an experimental or wait-list control group. All children received the First Step to Success intervention over a course of three months. Data were collected for both cohorts at baseline, post-intervention and again in 1^st grade. Only cohort 1 was followed through the 2^nd grade, due to funding limitations.

Assessments were based on teacher evaluations and classroom observations which were completed by trained observers. Children were assessed on measures of adaptive and maladaptive behaviors, and academic engaged time (AET), as well as aggression and withdrawn behaviors. For purposes of some baseline pre-intervention analyses, the experimental and wait-list control groups were combined across cohorts.

Results: On average, both cohorts experienced substantial gains from baseline to post-intervention on almost all outcome measures. In comparison with the control group, children in the experimental group showed significantly more improvement on measures of adaptive and maladaptive behaviors, and aggression (p<.001). Experimental children also performed significantly better than their control group counterparts on measures of academic engaged time (AET) (p<.05). The two groups did not differ significantly, however, on withdrawn behavior.

Assessments of the intervention’s sustainability showed that mean scores on the four significant outcomes remained similar at follow-up. Analyses revealed no significant differences between post-intervention and follow-up for either cohort (p>.05), indicating that the effects of the intervention were sustained over time.

A limitation of the evaluation design is the use of teachers to both implement the program and to assess the children’s behavior; however an independent observational measure also found impacts. In addition, a wait-list control group was used. Although this allowed all children at-risk to receive the FSS intervention, it prevented any further comparisons between the experimental and control groups beyond the 2^nd grade. Thus, program evaluators were unable to assess any long-term effects of First Step to Success.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

Link to program curriculum: http://sopriswest.com/Default.aspx

References

Walker, H. M., Golly, A., McLane, J. Z., & Kimmich, M. (2005). The Oregon first step to success replication initiative: Statewide results of an evaluation of the program’s impact. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 13, 163-172.

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: kindergarteners / Program age ranges in the Guide: 6-11

Program components: clinic-based, provider-based, or miscellaneous; home visiting; parent or family component; school-based

Measured outcomes: social and emotional health and development; behavioral problems

Program information last updated 3/14/07