Healthy Tampa Bay :: Promising Practices :: Early HeartSmarts Program

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An Evidence-Based Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.

2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures showing improvement in the outcome(s) of interest after the implementation of the program (i.e. increase in smoking cessation, not just the delivery of a smoking cessation program). The outcome measure(s) is/are compared at relevant time periods before and after the intervention or program implementation. Alternatively, the evaluation study compares the outcome(s) between an intervention group and an appropriate control group.

3. The study is of peer-review quality and presents numbers in a scientific manner; measurements of precision and reliability are included (e.g. confidence intervals, standard errors), results from statistical tests show a significant difference or change in the outcome measure(s), and relevant point estimates and p-values are presented. Note: if the results from an evaluation of a program are presented in a scientific manner and the outcome measure is improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant, the practice is classified as effective and not evidence-based.

Early HeartSmarts Program

Ranking	Evidence-Based Practice
Description	The Early HeartSmarts (EHS) program was developed by the Institute of HeartMath (IHM). It was designed to train teachers how to give young children (3–6 years old) the skills and knowledge necessary to develop age-appropriate socioemotional competencies. The goal of the program was to teach children how to facilitating their emotional, social, and cognitive development. Some of the program components include: learning about the heart and how it’s connected to emotions, how to recognize five basic emotions, how to generate positive emotions, and how to relate to peers. The program is intended for a classroom setting. The program kit includes an instructor manual, a DVD, heart model, bear puppet, books, cards, posters, and other supplemental materials. The kit costs $119.00.
Goal / Mission	The goal of this program is to help preschool children learn emotional self-regulation and facilitate their psychosocial development.
Results / Accomplishments	In 2006, the Institute of HeartMath conducted a quasi-experimental evaluation study of the Early HeartSmarts program. They measured the pre and post intervention development scores of 66 preschool students who participated in the program and 309 students in a control group. Overall, they found that children who were enrolled in the program showed significantly greater psychosocial developmental growth in comparison to the control group. The Early HeartSmarts program was effective in increasing children’s social/emotional, physical, cognitive and language development as measured by The Creative Curriculum Assessment instrument.
Categories	Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders
Organization(s)	Institute of HeartMath
Date of Publication	2009
Date of Implementation	2006
Location	Country: USA
Primary Contact	Mike Atkinson Institute of HeartMath P.O. Box 1463, Boulder Creek, California 95006 (831) 338-8500 education@heartmath.org http://store.heartmath.org/HeartSmarts/Early-He...
For more details	http://www.heartmath.org/research/research-publ...
Target Audience	Children, Families
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