School-based mental health services are a promising context for evidence-based interventions to promote early socio-emotional development, yet implementation presents significant challenges. This paper describes the rationale, content and format of a school-based intervention, Starting Strong in Kindergarten (Starting Strong). Starting Strong is a 10 week, indicated prevention programme aimed at promoting positive student–teacher relationships and behavioural adjustment during the transition to kindergarten. This parent- and teacher-focused indicated prevention programme targets children with or at risk for disruptive behaviour problems. The paper describes feasibility results of a pilot study of Starting Strong’s parent programme. Twenty-five families participated; rates of enrolment, attendance, retention, session engagement, homework completion, treatment fidelity and participant satisfaction suggest promising feasibility. School-based efforts targeting the transition to kindergarten may be helpful in improving behavioural and relational adjustment, especially for children who begin school with behavioural or relational risk.

Starting Strong in Kindergarten (Starting Strong) is a school-based indicated prevention targeting behavior problems, student-teacher relationships, and parent-school connectedness for children with or at risk for disruptive behavior problems during the transition to kindergarten. By use of a block-randomized, controlled trial to test program feasibility and efficacy, seven schools (representing 33 kindergarten classrooms and 97 children, 74% of whom were boys, 57% of whom were White, and 38% of whom were English language learners) were assigned to the immediate-intervention versus delayed control condition. A 10-week parent group (offered in both English and Spanish) and four-session teacher group consultation program addressed strategies for promoting positive behavior, student-teacher relationships, and parent-teacher collaboration. Feasibility was supported by high parent and teacher attendance, engagement, and satisfaction. The intervention had effects on overall parent- and teacher-reported behavior problems, as well as on parent-reported externalizing problems and parent- and teacher-reported internalizing problems, although not on a teacher-reported externalizing problems scale. Implications for sustainable, school-based mental health interventions are discussed. The transition to kindergarten may be a particularly apt time to address behavioral and relational adjustment in school.

To identify target areas for professional development, this mixed-methods study examined general education teachers' perceptions of autism and pedagogical practices in early elementary classrooms in the United States. In focus groups, teachers (N = 18) identified terms they associated with autism and strategies they used for inclusion and relationship building. Participants systematically free-listed and ranked their responses to three prompts. Using ranked responses, saliency scores were calculated to assess the perceived importance and frequency of responses. Teachers' most salient perceptions of autism (e.g., social difficulties, focused/fixed interests) revealed an awareness of core symptoms. Salient inclusion practices included assigning special classroom responsibilities and showcasing student talents; salient relationship-building strategies included embracing students' special interests and engaging in one-on-one time. Implications for teacher trainings are discussed.

Among typically developing children, many characteristics have been associated with parents' expectations for their children's adjustment to school and academic progress. Despite the history of increased parental involvement in the education of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) relative to parents of children without ASD, there is little research on the educational expectations that parents hold for their young children with ASD and how they are formed. In the current study, we addressed this gap by using a mixed methods design to examine the association between parents' expectations for the level of success their children would achieve during the current school year, and multiple child-, parent/family-, and teacher/school-level factors, among parents of 4 to 7 year olds with ASD (N 121). When these different factors were considered simultaneously, children's externalizing behaviors, parents' educational level, and parents' employment status were found to be significantly associated with parents' expectations of schooling.