The impact of the 101s storybook intervention program on executive function, the 101s social-emotional skills, and school achievement in preschoolers

Abstract

Multidisciplinary research in child development has underlined the significance of executive function (EF) development to children’s school and life success. Previous research in the 101s positive discipline training program; the U.S. national winningaward program for training parents, teachers, and early childhood educators to promote children's social-emotional and cognitive skills, have showed the positive impact on the parenting practices and children’s EF skills in Thailand for years. The current research attempted to further study the impact of the 101s children’s training on their EF development. Therefore, this research aimed to investigate the impact of the 101s Storybook program on EF and 101s social-emotional skills, and the correlations among EF, 101s social-emotional skills, and school achievement. A quasi-experimental, pre-posttest control group was designed. The sample was 4-year-old children in two classrooms in an elementary school. One classroom (n = 20) was intervention group where the children received the 101s Storybook program, and the other classroom (n = 20) was control group where the children received no intervention. Before and after the program implementation, the teachers of the children were asked to rate the behavior rating inventory of executive function® and the 101s social-emotional checklist. A series of MANCOVA was employed to evaluate the different mean scores of the dependent variables. A bivariate correlation was also performed to evaluate the correlations among the dependent variables. The results showed the positive impact of the 101s Storybook program on children’s EF, 101s social-emotional skills, and school achievement. The discussions, limitations, implications and suggestions are discussed.