Kids’Skills

Summary

Introduction

Children may experience various practical challenges in daily life due to the fact that their skills are still developing. Kids’Skills is an intervention that is aimed at strengthening the self-regulation and social skills of children aged 4–15 in early childhood education and care, schools, social and health services, and at home. Kids’Skills can also be applied to a broader age group and other contexts. In addition to professionals, it can also be used by parents at home independently with their child. The intervention is suitable for supporting the typical development of a child as well as various special needs, such as learning difficulties, developmental delays and behavioural challenges. The intervention aims to shift the focus from problems to supporting the development of skills. It utilises a solution-focused approach and a 15-step structure, the use of which is guided by a handbook.

Objective and research question

This systematic literature review assesses the effectiveness of the Kids’Skills intervention on the basis of research literature. The review answers the following questions: In how much detail is the Kids’Skills intervention described? Does the Kids’Skills intervention used in Finland have evidence-based effectiveness in developing the self-regulation and social skills of children aged 4–15?

Data and research methods

A systematic literature search was carried out using the PCC search strategy (Population, Concept, Context), which focused on the question: What research has been done on Kids’Skills? The following keywords were used: P = children of pre-school and primary school age, adolescents; C = Muksuoppi, Kids’Skills. Context (C) was omitted to avoid an excessive restriction of the results of the search. The primary area of interest in the search was effectiveness studies carried out on the intervention. A systematic literature search was carried out for the following six reference databases: MEDLINE, APA PsycInfo, CINAHL, ERIC, Web of Science and Scopus. In addition, a search for publications in Finnish was performed on the Finna.fi service, and the search was supplemented by a manual search. The accuracy of the method description in the manuals and other written materials maintained by the home base was evaluated.

Results

The literature search found two quasi-experimental comparative studies on the Kids’Skills intervention (Hautakangas et al., 2022a; Kitta et al., 2021). Kids’Skills is well-documented in the intervention handbook. Kids’Skills has been found to have positive effects on children’s self-regulation skills using the HTKS indicator (d = 0.62; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.18-1.43) but, based on what is reported by teachers and parents, the effect cannot be reliably cannot be reliably established in the final or five-month follow-up measurement (95% CI: -0.34-1.23) (Hautakangas et al., 2022a). Effect size calculations indicate that the effects on children’s social skills, such as empathy, self-confidence, self-esteem and self-regulation, are uncertain (Kitta et al., 2021). In the future, it would be beneficial to study the effectiveness of the intervention using larger data sets.

Methodology evaluation

Kids’Skills is a well-documented and theoretically grounded intervention, and there is promising research evidence about it. Quasi-experimental comparative studies (Hautakangas et al., 2022a; Kitta et al., 2021) have provided evidence that the intervention can be used to improve the self-regulation and social skills of children aged 4–15 better when compared to standard support provided in early childhood education and care or schools.