Summer Preschools for Syrian Refugee and Host Community Children in Turkey: A Model of Contextually Sensitive Early Intervention

ABSTRACT

Research Findings: This study evaluated the impacts of the Summer Preschools Program on 5-to-6-year-old Syrian refugee and local children from vulnerable communities of Turkey. Developed as a community-based contextually sensitive early intervention model, the program aimed to promote developmental well-being and school readiness of children from forced displacement and abject poverty backgrounds by supporting cognitive, language, and socioemotional development prior to primary school. A skill-based preschool education curriculum was implemented with 2620 children for 10 weeks at 140 classrooms in Southeastern Anatolia region across the war-torn border zone with Northern Syria. The study included 711 children in quasi-experimental design and pursued a multi-measure evaluation approach in seven early development domains. ANCOVA analyses revealed that after controlling for pretest scores, the intervention group scored significantly higher than the control group on posttest measures of preliteracy and prenumeracy, receptive and expressive language, and emotion-regulation skills. Additionally, there was a significant increase in social competence skills and decrease in internalizing/externalizing behavior problems. Intervention resulted in substantial improvements with mostly medium-to-large effect size. Overall, results suggest the effectiveness of the Summer Preschools as a compensation intervention strategy that can foster developmental well-being, school readiness, and resilience of children exposed to early life adversities. Practice or Policy: With its conceptual framework, intervention content, and implementation structure, the Summer Preschools model can inform support services and education policies of countries grappling with refugee influx.

Acknowledgments

The Summer Preschools Program was implemented by UNICEF Turkey and the South Eastern Anatolia Project Regional Development Administration (GAP) through the facilitative support of the Development Foundation of Turkey (TKV), and the technical support of the Mother Child Education Foundation (AÇEV). The author extends his gratitude to these partners and the participant children and their families for making this study possible. The author also thanks Professor Sevda Bekman for her support and insightful contributions, Ayşesim Diri for her valuable assistance and suggestions, and AÇEV and SAM team for their meticulous scrutiny throughout the research process. The content is the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of partners.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with ethical standards and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed parental consent was obtained from parents of the children and the verbal assent of each child was ensured.

Notes

1. Primary school in Turkey corresponds to the start of formal schooling and the beginning of first grade for children in the study.

2. A table illustrating the daily routines and time slots of the Summer Preschools Program can be provided upon request.

3. From west to east, the provinces were Hatay, Kilis, Gaziantep, Adıyaman, Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır, Mardin, Batman, Siirt, Şırnak.