Training and coaching with performance feedback has been effective for supporting teachers to use evidence-based instructional practices. However, coaching with performance feedback has primarily been used to support teachers to use discrete skills, and there has been little evidence of maintenance and generalization. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a professional development intervention on teachers’ implementation of practices related to the Pyramid Model for Promoting Social-Emotional Competence in Young Children, as well as the extent to which teachers generalized and maintained those practices. A multiple probe design across sets of Pyramid Model practices replicated across three teachers was used in this study. All teachers acquired the practices and maintained the practices after coaching ended. There was some evidence of generalization for all three teachers. The effects of teacher implementation on classroom-wide incidences of challenging behavior were mixed. Teachers all rated the coaching positively.
Closing the vocabulary gap for young children at risk for reading and language delays due to low socioeconomic status may have far reaching effects, as the relationship between early vocabulary knowledge and later academic achievement has been well-established. Vocabulary instruction for young children at risk for reading and language delays during classroom play is understudied, but appears to be a useful context for such interventions. A multiple probe design across behaviors replicated across participants was conducted to evaluate the effects of Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT) techniques embedded in play sessions on target vocabulary word acquisition for preschool participants. Participants acquired target word sets in an average of 14 sessions, which, in addition to a book with target vocabulary, included interventionist’s use of the words in conversation and prompts to use target words in play routines. Implications for vocabulary instruction during play and future research are included.
Although comparison studies are important in early intervention/early childhood special education (EI/ECSE), results of well-designed comparison studies are likely to be unpublished because of undifferentiated or differently differentiated results across participants. The purpose of this article is to highlight the utility of comparison designs in the identification of evidence-based interventions for individual children. We present results from three single case comparative studies analyzing embedded and massed-trial instruction, high-and low-fidelity instruction, and small group versus 1:1 instruction conducted in ECSE settings. All participants learned all targeted behaviors in both instructional conditions and learned no behaviors assigned to control conditions. Results suggest that evidence-based practices are not a "one-size-fits-all" conclusion and that data-based decision making is critical even when empirically supported interventions are used.
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