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Trial registered on ANZCTR


Registration number
ACTRN12616000872437
Ethics application status
Approved
Date submitted
23/06/2016
Date registered
4/07/2016
Date last updated
19/03/2021
Date data sharing statement initially provided
19/03/2021
Date results information initially provided
19/03/2021
Type of registration
Prospectively registered

Titles & IDs
Public title
Evaluating the effects of the Let’s Read professional development program on the literacy promoting practices of early childhood educators
Scientific title
Enhancing early childhood educators’ emergent literacy promoting practices: Effects of the Let’s Read professional development program
Secondary ID [1] 289526 0
Nil
Universal Trial Number (UTN)
Trial acronym
Linked study record

Health condition
Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied:
Early childhood educators' instructional practices - literacy 299234 0
Condition category
Condition code
Public Health 299244 299244 0 0
Other public health

Intervention/exposure
Study type
Interventional
Description of intervention(s) / exposure
Early childhood educators in the intervention arm will undertake the Let's Read professional development. This professional development aims to up-skill educators to enhance their emergent literacy promoting practices, and their capacity to engage with families about emergent literacy promotion.

The professional development will involve two stages;
(1) educators will complete a 4x1 hour Let's Read eLearning course online.
(2) ongoing support will be provided to educators by a trained literacy skills coach within their early childhood education and care centre, who will assist them in the implementation of Let's Read strategies in their work for six months duration.

The eLearning is to be completed in one sitting within a two week period prior to the start of the six month coaching intervention. The eLearning software monitors educators' course progress and completion. The specific learning objectives of the eLearning course are:
1) Increased understanding of early literacy and the rationale for supporting the development of an emergent literacy framework
2) Increased familiarity with the Let’s Read framework, including key messages and resources.
3) Increased understanding of the importance of working in partnership with families when supporting the development of early literacy skills.
4) Increased ability and confidence to facilitate conversations with families about early literacy
5) Increased awareness of strategies for implementing Let’s Read in early childhood education and care services and the community.

Coaches are educational leaders already supporting educators in the participating centres. Coaches will receive training in the form of a two day face-to-face group workshop on the specific requirements of the coaching intervention delivered by a trained Let's Read facilitator. Coaching support sessions provided to educators by coaches will comprise at least once monthly individual one-on-one coaching sessions of 5-20 minutes, as well as additional small group, face-to-face, email and telephone support sessions scheduled at the discretion of the coach as required.
Intervention code [1] 295120 0
Behaviour
Comparator / control treatment
The control group will engage in usual practice, which is educators working with children in their care according to industry standard curriculum frameworks.
Control group
Active

Outcomes
Primary outcome [1] 298726 0
Early childhood educators' engagement in emergent literacy promoting practices (composite outcome).

The primary outcome measures comprise the following observation tools:
- the Interaction, Communication and Literacy (ICL) Skills Audit - total scale score
- the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale – Revised (ECERS-R)/Infant Toddler Environment Rating Scale – Revised (ITERS-R) - total scale score
- the Sustained Shared Thinking and Emotional Wellbeing (SSTEW) Scale - total scale score
- a study developed literacy environment checklist - total score
Timepoint [1] 298726 0
At six months post completion of the eLearning course.
Primary outcome [2] 298727 0
Early childhood educators' knowledge, understanding, skills, values, and confidence in relation to engaging in emergent literacy promoting practices (composite outcome).

Outcomes measures comprise the following educator self-report tools:
- the Interaction, Communication and Literacy (ICL) Skills Audit self report tool (note this is separate to the ICL observation tool also listed as a primary outcome) - measuring educator skills and confidence around emergent literacy promoting practices
- a study developed survey measuring educator knowledge, understanding and values around emergent literacy
Timepoint [2] 298727 0
At six months post completion of the eLearning course.
Secondary outcome [1] 325073 0
Early childhood educators' knowledge, understanding, skills, values, and confidence in relation to engaging with families about emergent literacy (composite outcome).

Outcome measure:
- a study developed educator self-report survey
Timepoint [1] 325073 0
At six months post completion of the eLearning course.
Secondary outcome [2] 325075 0
Parents'/guardians' attitudes towards emergent literacy and engagement in literacy promoting activities with their children.

Outcome measure:
- Self-report survey, a composite of items adapted from the "attitude to reading survey" developed by Goldfeld, Quach, Nicholls, Reilly, Ukomunne and Wake (2012) and the Reading subdomain of StimQ-Preschool
Timepoint [2] 325075 0
At six months post completion of the eLearning course.

Eligibility
Key inclusion criteria
Educators must work as an educator/carer of children aged birth to five years at an Early Childhood Education and Care centre recruited into the study, and must provide informed consent in order to be included in the study.

Parents/guardians must have at least one child attending an Early Childhood Education and Care centre recruited into the study, and consent to participate in the study through implied consent upon survey completion.
Minimum age
18 Years
Maximum age
No limit
Sex
Both males and females
Can healthy volunteers participate?
Yes
Key exclusion criteria
Parents/guardians who do not speak or understand English will be excluded from the study. There are no exclusion criteria for educators.

Study design
Purpose of the study
Educational / counselling / training
Allocation to intervention
Randomised controlled trial
Procedure for enrolling a subject and allocating the treatment (allocation concealment procedures)
This is a cluster-randomised trial. Early childhood education and care centres will be recruited via a community organisation and then educators and parents will be provided with information about the trial and offered the chance to participate. Half of the centres will be allocated to receive the intervention and half will act as controls. This random allocation will be done by a Murdoch Childrens Research Institute researcher who is independent and blind to the study.
Methods used to generate the sequence in which subjects will be randomised (sequence generation)
Masking / blinding
Open (masking not used)
Who is / are masked / blinded?



Intervention assignment
Parallel
Other design features
Phase
Not Applicable
Type of endpoint/s
Statistical methods / analysis

Recruitment
Recruitment status
Completed
Date of first participant enrolment
Anticipated
11/07/2016
Actual
9/08/2016
Date of last participant enrolment
Anticipated
30/09/2017
Actual
11/08/2017
Date of last data collection
Anticipated
Actual
9/11/2017
Sample size
Target
660
Accrual to date
Final
441
Recruitment in Australia
Recruitment state(s)
VIC

Funding & Sponsors
Funding source category [1] 293904 0
Other
Name [1] 293904 0
Goodstart Early Learning
Country [1] 293904 0
Australia
Primary sponsor type
Other
Name
Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
Address
Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
The Royal Children's Hospital
Flemington Road
Parkville, Vic, 3052
Country
Australia
Secondary sponsor category [1] 292730 0
None
Name [1] 292730 0
Address [1] 292730 0
Country [1] 292730 0

Ethics approval
Ethics application status
Approved
Ethics committee name [1] 295322 0
The Royal Children's Hospital Human Research Ethics Committee
Ethics committee address [1] 295322 0
Research Ethics & Governance
The Royal Children's Hospital
50 Flemington Road
Parkville Vic 3052
Ethics committee country [1] 295322 0
Australia
Date submitted for ethics approval [1] 295322 0
06/04/2016
Approval date [1] 295322 0
16/06/2016
Ethics approval number [1] 295322 0
36093A

Summary
Brief summary
Let’s Read is a professional development program for early childhood educators that aims to improve their emergent literacy promoting practices and help them talk to families about their child's emergent literacy. This project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the Let's Read professional development program through a cluster randomised trial.

Participants will be educators working with children aged birth to five years in the Early Childhood Education and Care centres taking part in the study, and parents/guardians of children attending the participating centres who speak and understand English.

Educators working in centres who are allocated to receive the Let's Read professional development will complete a Let's Read eLearning course, and then they will receive ongoing support from a literacy skills coach who will assist them in carrying out Let's Read strategies in their work. Coaches will also receive training on how to support educators to carry out Let’s Read.

Pre and post intervention measures of changes in educators' emergent literacy promoting practices, and their knowledge, understanding, skills, values, and confidence in relation to emergent literacy and engaging with families about emergent literacy, will be taken. Pre and post intervention measures of changes in parents'/guardians' attitudes towards emergent literacy and engagement in literacy promoting activities with their children will also be taken. These results will be compared with a control group of educators and parents/guardians from centres who did not receive the intervention.

We hypothesise that the Let's Read professional development program will enhance the emergent literacy promoting practices of educators working in Early Childhood Education and Care centres, compared to standard practice.
Trial website
Trial related presentations / publications
Public notes

Contacts
Principal investigator
Name 66866 0
Prof Sharon Goldfeld
Address 66866 0
Centre for Community Child Health
The Royal Children's Hospital
50 Flemington Road
Parkville, 3052, VIC
Country 66866 0
Australia
Phone 66866 0
+61 3 9345 6408
Fax 66866 0
+61 3 9345 5900
Email 66866 0
[email protected]
Contact person for public queries
Name 66867 0
Catriona Elek
Address 66867 0
Centre for Community Child Health
Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
Flemington Road
Parkville, 3052, VIC
Country 66867 0
Australia
Phone 66867 0
+61 0411098273
Fax 66867 0
Email 66867 0
[email protected]
Contact person for scientific queries
Name 66868 0
Sharon Goldfeld
Address 66868 0
Centre for Community Child Health
The Royal Children's Hospital
50 Flemington Road
Parkville, 3052, VIC
Country 66868 0
Australia
Phone 66868 0
+61 3 9345 6408
Fax 66868 0
Email 66868 0
[email protected]

Data sharing statement
Will individual participant data (IPD) for this trial be available (including data dictionaries)?
No
No/undecided IPD sharing reason/comment
Participant consent was not provided for provision of this data.


What supporting documents are/will be available?

No Supporting Document Provided



Results publications and other study-related documents

Documents added manually
TypeIs Peer Reviewed?DOICitations or Other DetailsAttachment
Plain language summaryNo Not yet available.

Documents added automatically
No additional documents have been identified.