Children and their families were randomly selected in each centre for the research. All parents
gave signed consent and participated in a detailed interview when their children were enrolled in
the study. This was followed up with questionnaires/interviews once the children were in school.
The ‘home’ group were recruited from the reception classes that EPPE children entered.
Details about length of sessions, number of sessions normally attended per week and child
attendance were collected to enable the amount of pre-school education experienced to be
quantified for each child. Two complicating factors are that a substantial proportion of children
moved from one form of pre-school provision to another (e.g. from playgroup to nursery class)
and some attended more than one centre in a week. Careful records are necessary in order to
examine issues of stability and continuity, and to document the range of pre-school experiences
to which individual children were exposed.
Child assessments
At (or just after) their third birthday (mean age was 3 years 3 months), each child was assessed
by a researcher on four cognitive tasks: verbal comprehension, naming vocabulary, knowledge
of similarities seen in pictures (non-verbal comprehension), and block building (spatial
awareness). A profile of each child’s social and emotional adjustment was completed by a pre-
school educator who knew the child well. If the child changed pre-school before school entry,
s/he was assessed again. At school entry, a similar cognitive battery was administered along
with knowledge of the alphabet, rhyme/alliteration and early number concepts (for details of the
assessments see EPPE Technical Paper 1). The teacher who knew the child best completed
the social/behavioural profile.
Further assessments were made at exit from Reception (for only half the sample to reduce the
costs) and at the end of Years 1 and 2 (for the whole sample). In addition to standardised tests
of reading and mathematics, information on National Assessments were collected along with
attendance data and information on a child’s special needs status. At age 7, children were
invited to complete a questionnaire about themselves, their attitudes to school and themselves
as learners.
Measuring child/family characteristics known to have an impact on children’s
development
1) Information on individual ‘child factors’ such as birth weight, gender, language, birth
order, health and development problems was collected at parent interview.
2) Family factors were also investigated. Parent interviews provided detailed information about
parent education, occupation and employment, family structure etc. In addition, details about
parental attitudes and involvement in educational activities in the home (e.g. reading to child,
teaching nursery rhymes, television viewing etc.) were collected and analysed.
3) A child’s care history (who looked after them, at what age & for how long) before the age of 3
years was recorded during the parent interview.
Pre-school Characteristics and Processes
EPPE Regional Researchers liaised in each authority with an LA Regional Coordinator, a senior
local authority officer with responsibility for Early Years who arranged ‘introductions’ to centres
and key staff. The Regional Researchers conducted extensive interviews with the centre
managers that included information on child/staff ratio, staff training, aims, policies, curriculum,
parental involvement, etc.
‘Process’ characteristics such as the day-to-day functioning within settings (e.g. child-staff
interaction, child-child interaction, and structuring of children's activities) were also studied. The
Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS-R Harms, Clifford & Cryer, 1998) and the
Caregiver Interaction Scale (Arnett, 1989) were also administered. The ECERS-R included the
following sub-scales: