The Effectiveness of an Additional Half-Day Program for At-Risk Nursery and Kindergarten Children through a Collaborative Partnership

A collaborative partnership was developed within a school division, inner-city school and nearby daycare to provide an intervention program for children in nursery school and kindergarten known to be at-risk for school success. The plan was to offer an additional half-day of programming focused on a whole-child vision including language, literacy, social skills and physical activity to increase the children's readiness for school. A program was developed using the results from early screening testing, the provincial curriculum for the early years, and consultations with experienced administrative and school-based personnel, clinical consultants and the director of the child care center. Contrary to expectation, the results indicate greater gains were achieved by the nursery-aged children over those for the kindergarten children. This finding suggests interventions with the nursery school age group may be particularly impactful in making a difference in their language and literacy development.