Virtual kindergarten readiness programming for preschool-aged children: Feasibility, social validity, and preliminary impacts

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10409289.2021.1919041

We conducted the current study examining the feasibility, social validity, and preliminary impacts of a virtual summer learning program.

Ninety-one preschoolers and their caregivers participated in a 4-week program involving one weekly teacher-caregiver meeting, two weekly Watch Together home learning activities, two weekly Play Together home learning activities, one or two weekly Read Together home learning activities, and one or two weekly teacher-child video chat lessons.

Recruitment and participation indicated high levels of interest. Caregivers reported high levels of satisfaction with the program and teachers reported moderate to high levels of child engagement during video chat lessons. Children showed significant gains on emotion knowledge, patterning, and alphabet knowledge.

Practice or Policy: This study demonstrates the promise of a virtual kindergarten readiness program and suggests that the combination of educational media and video chat instruction may be effective for promoting children’s skills.

Child Readiness Skills To measure children’s readiness skills at the start and close of the 4-week Summer Success at Home program, children were administered three sets of measures focused on literacy, math, and social-emotional skills. Measures were administered in a one-on-one Zoom call involving the child and their teacher.