Our methodologies

Good Start for Parents

Research shows that...
The greatest motivation for a child to learn quickly is the attention of parents - a smile, a hug, praise. If you give your child positive attention, you can enjoy his or her success in learning while preventing your child from finding other ways to get your attention, such as by being naughty. (Sue Palmer: Detoxing Childhood. 2007)
Children of parents who regularly play with their children are more creative, more confident and have fewer behavioural problems. (R. Bishop: Go out and play, but mean it. 2013; K. R. Ginsburg: The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bond. That and how they talk to their children is essential to the development of their ability to think and find meaning. Speech is crucial for developing creative thinking, social and emotional skills of preschool children, training persistence and eventually school achievement. (Peter Hobson: The Cradle of Thought: Exploring the Origins of Thinking. 2004)
Children who are given too many instructions by their parents have more behavioural problems. Therefore, you should only use commands for really important matters. Parental attention in the form of orders only reinforces the child's disobedience. Moreover, if you repeat an instruction when the child is already following it, you undermine the child's efforts to obey. (M. Gettinger and J. K. Seibert: Contributions of study skills to academic competence. School Psychology Review, 2002, 31 (3), pp. 350-365.
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How do we know that Good Start really works?

The effectiveness of the Incredible Years® programme, on which the Good Start for Parents methodology is based, has been extensively tested and evaluated by both its developers and independent experts for over 30 years.

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Situation in the Czech Republic

The programme can respond to the difficulties we encounter in our country – often children do not have firm boundaries, parents do not have time, aggression is growing and individual psychosocial problems are increasing.

Good Start methodology has effective results in supporting inclusive approaches and promoting social, emotional and cognitive skills of pre-school children. It has proven positive impacts on children's and parents' behaviour.

For the methodology we disseminate, we observe its impact on more than 2600 children in kindergarten using SDQ questionnaires (Strengths and Weaknesses Questionnaire, R. Goodman, 2005).

We use a randomized controlled experimental design to measure changes in children's behavior in intervention classes of preschools (trained teachers working with Good Start methodology) and control classes of preschools not working with the methodology.

Children's social-emotional skills develop better with Good Start

Children’s negative behaviours decrease significantly faster over time in kindergartens where teachers use Good Start methodology than in others. The positive area of prosocial behaviour then grows faster.

Research with a longitudinal quasi-experimental design was conducted 1. January 2017 – 1. June 2021 on a non-representative sample of 2603 preschool children across the Czech Republic. The areas presented are based on the standardized Strenghts and Difficulties Questionnaire, which was used by the preschool teachers to assess the children’s behaviour.

Schola Empirica Research Reports

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