Al’s Pals: Kids Making Healthy Choices (OJJDP Model Program Guide)

Office of Justice Programs, Innovation - Partnerships – Safer Neighborhoods

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Serving Children, Families and Communities

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Al’s Pals: Kids Making Healthy Choices

Intervention:

Al’s Pals: Kids Making Healthy Choices is an early childhood curriculum designed to increase the protective factor of social and emotional competence in young children and to decrease the risk factor of early and persistent aggression or antisocial behavior. The resiliency-based curriculum is designed to provide real-life situations that introduce children to health-promoting concepts and build prosocial skills, such as understanding feelings, accepting differences, caring about others, using self-control, and managing anger.

The program follows the premise that intervening during the early years when children are forming patterns of behaviors and attitudes can reduce the likelihood that they will later develop aggressive, antisocial, or violent behavior. Al’s Pals is based heavily on resiliency research as a framework for developing an intervention. The program curriculum is designed to build resiliency by presenting children with real-life situations that introduce them to health-promoting concepts and prosocial skills. The program also recognizes the ongoing nature of resilience building and trains teachers to use resilience-promoting concepts in their classroom management practices (Lynch, Geller, and Schmidt 2004).

Al’s Pals uses 46 interactive lessons that teach children how to practice positive ways to express feelings, relate to others, communicate, brainstorm ideas, solve problems, and differentiate between safe and unsafe substances and situations. Lessons are delivered twice a week over 23 weeks. Each lesson lasts 15 to 20 minutes and typically consists of two or three activities, including puppet-led discussions, brainstorming, role plays, and guided creative play. Three original puppets (Al, Ty, and Keisha) are used by teachers to reinforce prosocial behavior and express clear messages that the use of violence, drugs, and alcohol is not acceptable. The puppets lead discussions and activities designed to help children practice getting along with others and making safe and healthy choices.

Some of the lessons include parental involvement. Teachers regularly send home curriculum letters from Al to update parents about the skills and lessons their children are learning, and to suggest activities that can be completed at home to reinforce those concepts. “Al-a-Gram” messages can also be sent home so children who display specific Al’s Pals skills, such as using kind words, can be recognized at home by their parents.

Evaluation Methodology:

Study 1
Lynch, Geller, and Schmidt (2004) conducted an experimental study in a large Head Start program in Lansing, Michigan, during the 1996–1997 school year. Thirty-three classrooms were selected and randomly assigned to receive the Al’s Pals curriculum or to serve as controls. Seventeen classrooms (n=218 children) were randomly assigned to the intervention group and 16 classrooms (n=181 children) were randomly assigned to the control group.

There were no significant differences between the intervention and control groups on age, gender, or race/ethnicity. The average age of the children at program entry was 52.3 months for the intervention group and 52 months for the control group. For the intervention group, the gender breakdown was 50 percent male and 50 percent female, while the control group had 51.5 percent boys and 48.5 percent girls. The entire sample of children was approximately 50 percent white, 25 percent African American, and 25 percent Hispanic, biracial, or of other ethnicities.

Child outcomes were measured using the Child Behavior Rating Scale-30 (CBRS-30), the Teacher Report of Child Coping (TRCC), and the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scale (PKBS). The CBRS-30 is comprised of 30 items and is a revised version of the CBRS-20. The instrument assesses aspects of children’s behavior reflecting social–emotional competence. Sample items assessed include appropriate expression of feelings, demonstration of self-control, and use of prosocial methods of interpersonal problem solving. The TRCC measures changes in children’s coping styles over the course of the study. Scale items describe five different coping strategies (Seeking Support, Instrumental Coping, Venting, Aggression, and Distract/Avoid). The PKBS comprises 76 items and two major scales measuring Social Skills and Problem Behaviors. All three instruments measure child behaviors on Likert scales.

Results were examined through three sets of analyses. The first was independent t-tests, which assessed differences between the intervention and control groups on each of the measures at the study's outset. The second was paired t-tests, which examined within-group changes from pretest to posttest. Finally, repeated measures analysis of variance determined whether the two groups changed similarly across time on each of the measures, from pretest to posttest. The unit of analysis was classroom means. The pretest was administered at the beginning of the school year and the posttest was administered at the end of the school year.

Evaluation Outcome:

Study 1
Overall, the results were mixed. Lynch, Geller, and Schmidt (2004) found the intervention group improved significantly on measures of social–emotional competence, prosocial skills, and some measures of coping, but there was no improvement in problem behaviors at the posttest. At the same time, the control group showed no significant improvements in measures of social–emotional competence, prosocial skills, and coping, and actually showed higher ratings of problem behaviors at the posttest.

Social–Emotional Competence and Prosocial Skills
From pretest to posttest, classrooms that received the Al’s Pals intervention showed significant positive changes in social–emotional competence and prosocial skills based on measures from the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scale (PKBS) and Child Behavior Rating Scale-30. The control classrooms showed no significant changes on these measures.

Coping
The intervention group saw significant positive changes in measures of positive coping and “distract/avoid” from the Teacher Report of Child Coping. However, there was no significant change on the measure of negative coping. The control group did not make any statistically significant changes on any measures of coping.

Problem Behaviors
The intervention classrooms showed no significant changes on any of the problem behavior measures from the PKBS. The control classroom did show significant changes, but in the wrong direction. That is, the control group showed significantly higher average ratings on measures of problem behaviors at the end of the school year than it did at the beginning of the school year.

Other Information:

Implementation Information: Al’s Pals training is provided by Wingspan, the developer and national distributor of the program. The core training is required for all educators who will deliver the program. Information on the training can be found on the company’s Web site: http://www.wingspanworks.com/training/als_pals_training.php. Training is available in two formats: 1) face-to-face training conducted over 2 days, or 2) live, online training consisting of seven sessions, each lasting approximately 2 hours. Both options are available for individuals and groups.

Curriculum materials are distributed upon completion of the core training. Each classroom requires its own curriculum kit. The kit includes two complete sets of the 46-lesson curriculum; 3 original puppets; easy-to-follow puppet scripts; 12 original songs on CD; an oversized songbook; 38 color photographs of real-life situations; 14 sets of parent letters (also available in Spanish); 8 different “Al-a-Grams”; Calm Down and Problem-Solving posters; 2 children’s books; and color certificates of program completion for the children.

References:

Lynch, Kathleen Bodisch, Susan R. Geller, and Melinda G. Schmidt. 2004. “Multi-Year Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Resilience-Based Prevention Program for Young Children.” The Journal of Primary Prevention 24(3):335–53.

Lynch, Kathleen Bodisch. 1998. Results of Michigan Replication Study 1996–97: Child Outcomes. Al’s Pals: Kids Making Healthy Choices. Richmond, Va.: Virginia Institute for Development Disabilities, Virginia Commonwealth University.

Lynch, Kathleen Bodisch, Susan R. Geller, and Denise R. Hunt. 1998. “Successful Program Development Using Implementation Evaluation.” Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community 17(2):51–64.

Program Specification:

New Rating:

Promising

Re-reviewed Date:

July 2012

Program Type:

Classroom Curricula

Conflict Resolution / Interpersonal Skills

School/Classroom Environment

Ethnicity:

Other Ethnicity

African American

Hispanic or Latino (of any race)

White

Gender:

Both

Age:

3 - 8

Target Settings:

Suburban

Urban

Problem Behaviors:

Aggression/Violence

Risk & Protective Factors:

Risk

Individual

Antisocial behavior and alienation / Delinquent beliefs / General delinquency involvement / Drug dealing

Cognitive and neurological deficits/Low intelligence quotient/Hyperactivity

Early onset of aggression and/or violence

Favorable attitudes toward drug use/Early onset of AOD use/Alcohol and/or drug use

Mental disorder / Mental health problem / Conduct disorder

School

Inadequate school climate / Poorly organized and functioning schools / Negative labeling by teachers

Protective

Family

Effective parenting

Good relationship with parents / Bonding or attachment to family

Individual

Positive / Resilient temperament

Self-efficacy

Social competencies and problem solving skills

Peer

Good relationships with peers

School

High expectations of students

High quality schools / Clear standards and rules

Opportunities for prosocial school involvement

Presence and involvement of caring, supportive adults in school

Additional Information:

SAMHSA: NREPP

Department of Education

CASEL

Status:

Program is in operation at this time.

Performance Measures:

Suggested OJJDP Performance Measures for the Program Types(s):

School Programs
School/Classroom Environment
Logic Model: PDF
Performance Matrix:PDF
Delinquency Prevention
Classroom Curricula
Logic Model: PDF
Performance Matrix:PDF
School Programs
Classroom Curricula
Logic Model: PDF
Performance Matrix:PDF

Contact Information:

Program Developer:
Susan R. Geller
President, Wingspan LLC
4323 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060
Phone: 1.804.967.9002
Fax: 1.804.967.9003
Email: Click Here
Website: Click Here

Training & TA Provider:
Susan R. Geller
President, Wingspan LLC
4323 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060
Phone: 1.804.967.9002
Fax: 1.804.967.9003
Email: Click Here
Website: Click Here