ZonMw Funds Leonie Vreeke's Stepped-Care Solution for Shy Children

Toddlers and preschoolers who are extremely shy have a higher risk of psychological problems. Unfortunately, parents of these children often seek help too late, which leads to more extensive treatment, higher healthcare costs, and a higher burden of disease. Fortunately, there is a short questionnaire used by the JGZ ( Youth Health Care) to identify these children. If children score high on the screening questionnaire, a parent group training is advised. However, sometimes this training is too intensive, whilst in other cases additional treatment may be required.

Three steps

Therefore, there is a need for a stepwise treatment specific to young children, taking into account the degree of shyness and its impact on the child. This project aims to develop a stepped-care treatment and investigate which type of support is most suitable for which group of parents and children, starting with:

• an online webinar for parents (step 1)
• group treatment (step 2)
• intensive individual treatment (step 3)

Leonie Vreeke's new project is an outgrowth of two of her previously honoured projects by ZonMw. For the December 2022 call, 217 researchers submitted their project ideas by the end of February. Vreeke describes the tight schedule: 'In May, I heard from ZonMw that we could develop the idea further. In mid-June we submitted the project idea, in mid-July we received the feedback from a panel and three international experts, in mid-August I sent a response to that feedback and in mid-September I was allowed to further explain the project in an interview in front of a committee of thirteen ZonMw panel members and answer their questions. At the end of October, we received the final result that we and six other of the remaining 12 projects were honoured.'