The Alert Program Study: Determining the effectiveness of a program to improve primary school aged children's measures of self-regulation and executive functioning, with and without a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, in the Fitzroy Valley region of Western Australia.

The Alert Program is a framework designed to support occupational therapist, teachers, parents and other professionals to teach children how to self-regulate by changing their arousal or levels of alertness using sensorimotor strategies. The primary focus is to help children learn to monitor, maintain, and change their levels of alertness so that it is appropriate to a situation or task. The program was initially designed for children aged eight to 12 however it can be adapted for preschool through high school, and for adults. It can be implemented in a variety of settings and the suggested activities can be adapted to meet the needs of the specific client group. In this study, teachers from nine primary schools will deliver a curriculum version of the Alert Program that has been developed by adapting the commercial resources. Children attending schools in years 1 - 6 in Fitzroy Valley primary schools will by taught 8 Alert Program lessons by their teacher (with the support of the Aboriginal Islander Education Officer or Education Assistant if they have access to one in class). Each lesson will go for approximately 45 minutes to one hour. The curriculum will be delivered over eight weeks in one school term. Schools will make a decision to implement the curriculum (as they can do with any program) however parents will provide consent for their child to participate in data collection. Teachers will be trained in the Alert Program concepts by attending two six hour training sessions delivered by researchers. The first training session will take place before the intervention commences in the classroom and the second training session between weeks three and four of the intervention. These sessions will include information about the research study, the Alert Program and familiarisation with the curriculum guide and resources provided to teachers. The training will include the viewing of five out of 18 of the original on-line Alert Program leader's training produced by Therapy Works Inc who are the program developers. All materials and resources required to implement the curriculum will be provided to participating schools. Self-report measures for teacher's adherence to the lesson plans have been included in the curriculum guide. At least 20% of the lessons will be audio recorded and viewed by researchers who will check the lesson delivery against a fidelity checklist. In addition to the Alert Program lessons being taught in class, a parent workshop will be designed by researchers and delivered to interested family members to learn about the Alert Program concepts and activities they can do at home with their children (who are learning about the program at school). The sessions will be approximately 90 minutes in duration and delivered at a time negotiated with the school community during the classroom intervention period. The sessions have been designed in consultation with an occupational therapist and the Alert Program trained research team member and community researcher.