'Watch Me Play!' feasibility study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Feasibility study of 'Watch Me Play!'- a brief intervention to improve the psychological well-being of young children in foster care
IRAS ID
129095
Contact name
Jenifer Wakelyn
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust
Research summary
Young children in the care system are at high risk of mental health difficulty and social adversity in childhood and continuing into adult life. There are no targeted, evidence-based interventions for young children in kinship or foster care.
'Watch me play!' is a new, brief intervention that aims to improve the psychological well-being of young children who have been removed from their families of origin and are being brought up by kinship carers (relatives) or foster carers.
The intervention promotes self-directed play by children, with the undivided attention of their foster carer, in order to improve the quality of carer-child interaction. We hypothesize that this improved relationship may lead to improvements in attunement between child and caregiver, placement stability, management of behavioural difficulties, and child functioning and cognition. This hypothesis will be tested in a subsequent larger pilot study.
This feasibility study will inform subsequent studies that aim to respond to the need for an accessible, affordable mental health intervention for this highly vulnerable population. It will assess the feasibility of recruitment (consents will be required from birth parents, social workers and foster carers); retention (foster carers and kinship carers typically have complex commitments and calls on their time; children in care experience changes of placement for a range of reasons); and acceptability of the intervention - to children, foster carers, birth parents and social workers.
This is a pilot study using case series aimed at testing the feasibility of the 'Watch Me Play!' intervention and to inform the design of a subsequent controlled trial. A small sample of up to 6 children aged 12-36 months will be recruited for this preliminary study.
REC name
London - Camden & Kings Cross Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/1551
Date of REC Opinion
3 Oct 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion