Get ready for school! Exploring school readiness of recently arrived refugee children
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(C) Marquardt
Julian Busch, Thimo Buchmüller, Hanna Lembcke, Francesca Ialuna & Birgit Leyendecker Department of Developmental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
INTRODUCTION
METHODS
More than 200.000 refugees below the age of 6 arrived in Germany between the summer 2015 and spring 2017. Refugee children are exposed to a high number of risk factors and at risk for delays in educaBon [1; 2; 3]. DisBnct studies on childcare with refugee children are not available yet. Immigrant children, however, seem to parBcularly benefit from childcare in academic achievement, language acquisiBon, and psychosocial adaptaBon [4].
Par0cipants We assessed 100 recently arrived refugee children (50 male) in Bridging Projects at a baseline and a parBal number of them again a_er, on average, 151 days (SD= 40). Children were 5.47 years old (SD= 1.00, Md= 6.01) at baseline. Most frequently, children originate from South-East Europe (41), African countries (29) and the Middle East (19).
Bridging Projects Bridging Projects are federally funded specialized childcare groups for recently arrived refugee children. The aim is to bridge educaBonal gaps and to prepare children for the transiBon to daycare or elementary school. Bridging Projects have a lower teacher-child raBo (1:3.5), fewer hours of caretaking (10h/w), and smaller groups (8-10 children) compared to regular German childcare.
Procedure We assessed four indicators of school readiness. Results were compared to age- and gender-adjusted norms. Mean comparisons show intra-individual change over Bme. Instruments § FINE MOTOR SKILLS: IDS (sub. Fine Motor Skills); to thread on beads, draw lines with a pen [5] § VISUAL CONCEPT FORMATION: WPPSI (sub. Object Assembly); to combine puzzle pieces [6] § RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE: PPVT-IV (German version); to listen and understand one-word vocabulary [7] § SOCIO-EMOTIONAL BURDENS: SDQ (German version); teachers report about emoBon, conduct, hyperacBvity and peer relaBons [8]
We longitudinally invesDgated indicators of school readiness of recently arrived refugee children in childcare.
Figure 1: n1= 44; paired sample t-test on raw scores yielded no significance, t(43)= -1.49, p= .143.
Figure 2: n2= 35; paired sample t-test on raw scores reached significance, t(34)= -3.028, p= .005.
Figure 3: n3= 37; paired sample t-test on raw scores reached significance, t(36)= -2.53, p= .016.
RESULTS
CONCLUSION
DoWed lines in Figures 1 to 4 indicate 1*SD thresholds and dashed lines mean values according to norm samples. School readiness of recently arrived refugee children varied across the assessed domains. Repeated assessments of refugee children, who aWended specialized childcare, suggested relaDve improvements over Dme in certain domains while socio-emoBonal burdens stayed high.
Besides mental and physical health, educaBon is an important topic when meeBng the needs of refugees. Offering effecBve educaBon means empowering young refugees to sustainably rebuild upcoming socieBes. The German Bridging Project program serves this need focusing on early childhood development. Our findings point to those domains of school readiness, for which young refugee children require addiDonal support.
Figure 4: n4= 30; paired sample t-test on raw scores yielded no significance, t(29)= .250, p= .805; higher T-scores indicate more socio-emoBonal burdens.
(C) Marquardt
References on the handout
