Delivering the Incredible Years® Dina Treatment Program in Schools for Early Elementary Students with Self-Regulation Difficulties

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to describe the implementation of an evidence-based treatment, the Incredible Years® (IY) Small Group Dina Dinosaur Treatment program, as delivered in elementary schools to address the needs of children in kindergarten through second grade with self-regulation difficulties. Adaptations for school-based delivery of 17 intervention groups across three cohorts and 11 schools from an ongoing randomized controlled trial are described, and implementation data including qualitative feedback from school stakeholders are presented. Results show that, with implementation supports, this adapted model can be delivered in schools with fidelity comparable to the clinic-based model, although several activities were delivered at lower dosage in the low-income urban schools as compared with low-income rural or better resourced schools. Satisfaction among school counselors, teachers, and parents was consistently high. Implementation challenges include logistics such as space and scheduling, program fit with school practices and policies, use of specific treatment strategies such as time-out within the school context, capacity of school personnel to deliver the program, and selection of students and group composition. Lessons learned can inform adaptation and delivery of other evidence-based clinic treatments in school settings.

KEYWORDS:

• School-based mental health
• self-regulation
• elementary
• implementation
• evidence-based treatments

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. Dr. Murray is a trained mentor in the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management Program, and receives compensation from community organizations for providing trainings and consultation. Dr. Webster-Stratton disseminates the Incredible Years interventions and stands to gain from a favorable report. She has agreed to distance herself from primary data handling and analysis. We are grateful to our research team and the school personnel, students and parents who contributed to the success of this project.

Notes

¹ There were 87 students randomized to the intervention group. One student did not participate in the intervention due to parent preference related to receipt of other services, and these data are not reported here.

Additional information

Funding

The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A150169 to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.