Pre-school centre quality and progress and development
Measures of pre-school centre quality
An important question for the EYTSEN research is whether higher quality pre-school provision
helps to promote the cognitive and social/behavioural development of young children. Different
types of pre-school centre vary in terms of their quality characteristics. Pre-school quality was
measured using the ECERS scales and the Caregiver Interaction Scale (see Section 5).
Integrated centres and nursery schools had the highest average scores on pre-school
environmental quality, and also the lowest staff turnover. Value added analyses of children’s
cognitive progress have shown that higher quality scores on the ECERS-E scale are associated
with greater cognitive progress over the pre-school period for all children. Children from low
socio-economic status backgrounds and boys were found to benefit particularly from higher
quality provision as measured by this instrument. Quality measures from the main ECERS-R
scale also showed a significant link with social/behavioural development. In addition, ratings on
the sensitivity of adult-child interactions showed a significant link with young children’s cognitive
progress and social/behavioural development.
Children who moved out of ‘strong cognitive risk’ status generally attended higher quality
provision than those who moved into ‘at risk’ status. It appears that higher pre-school quality
promotes cognitive development for children, including those of low attainment. High quality
provision may be seen as an effective intervention that can improve cognitive development and
thus provide vulnerable children with a better start at primary school. This is an important finding
and suggests that policy makers and practitioners should focus on developing ways to improve
the quality of pre-school centres, particularly those which serve higher numbers of disadvantaged
children who are at greater ‘risk’ of SEN.
Parents’ perceptions and experiences of special educational needs
When the children were in primary school the project sent out a questionnaire to all parents. The
questionnaire contained a section asking specifically about parents’ perceptions of their child’s
special educational needs. We found that parents of the ‘home’ children were the least likely to
report incidence of special educational needs in their children. However, when the ‘home’
children were considered for their ‘at risk’ status by teachers, there were proportionately far more
children ‘at risk’ of SEN in this group than in the group of children who had attended a pre-school
centre. This discrepancy indicates a need for targeted parental education.
Type of SEN
Medical/physical conditions- Although most medical conditions do not fall within the strict
definition of SEN, it is interesting to note that the most common type of medical/physical
condition reported across the sample as a whole was asthma followed by eczema (with many
children having both), followed by children with language difficulties.
Psychological development: More children were reported by parents as having difficulties with
reading than with numeracy. Parents on the whole reported less incidence of social/behavioural
difficulties in their children than medical/physical conditions or learning difficulties. Children with
behavioural problems were more likely to have difficulties over a number of SEN domains than
children with learning or physical difficulties.
Who were the children reported by parents to have a special educational need?
Gender: Boys were more likely to be reported by parents as having a learning disability, be
hyperactive, unhappy going to school and have eating problems.
Marital status - There were more ‘SEN’ children reported by parents who were divorced and
fewer by married parents.
Socio-economic status - There were more ‘SEN’ children reported by parents from the father
‘never worked’ group and fewer from the ‘professional father’ group.
Life events - There were significant relationships between a child being exposed to a potentially
upsetting ‘life event’ and parents reporting concern for SEN. The ‘life events’ with a significant
association with SEN reporting by parents were not settling at school, being hospitalised,
‘suffered from family conflict’, separation/divorce, moving home and sibling rivalry. This may
52