The Cascading Coaching Model for Supporting Service Providers, Caregivers, and Children

Abstract

Teaching caregivers to support their young children’s language development is recommended as an effective early language intervention, and caregiver-implemented interventions are recognized as evidence-based. However, as the natural change agents for training and coaching caregivers, early intervention (EI) service providers are in need of professional development to effectively coach caregivers to use interventions with their child. The purpose of this study was to examine the Coaching Caregivers Professional Development program (CoCare PD) in which researchers train and coach EI service providers via telepractice in caregiver coaching, a set of skills useful in nurturing partnerships with families to support caregivers’ use of evidence-based practices with their young children with disabilities. A single-case research study across four EI service providers was conducted and findings support a functional relation between training and coaching EI service providers via telepractice and providers’ use of coaching practices with families on their caseload.

A Parent-Implemented Shared Reading Intervention via Telepractice

“…Therefore, it is possible that for RTs and NCT strategies, the combination of both training and coaching caused the changes in behavior. These findings align with other studies that suggested that training should be supplemented with coaching (Meadan et al, 2016, 2020).…”

Naturalistic Communication Training for Early Intervention Providers and Latinx Parents of Children with Signs of Autism

“…Traditionally, federally and state-funded early intervention programs make use of coaching models which involve both parents and clinicians. Early intervention coaching involves components such as (a) modeling and discussing target communication behaviors and strategies, (b) observing caregiver-child interactions during routines, (c) assisting caregivers with strategies, (d) providing praise and corrective feedback, and (e) allowing parents to reflect and ask questions (Friedman et al, 2012;Meadan et al, 2020). Coaching can be done in person or via telehealth.…”

“…While early intervention studies involving collaboration between community-based providers and parents of children with ASD are limited, (Zwaigenbaum et al, 2015), studies providing training to both providers and parents are even more scarce. In one study, Meadan et al (2020) used a cascading (i.e., train the trainer) telehealth model to teach early intervention providers to coach families of children with developmental disabilities in the use of naturalistic intervention strategies. While providers increased their use of coaching strategies, participating families did not specifically include children with characteristics of ASD, and the study did not evaluate effects on parents' use of strategies or children's communication behaviors.…”

Building Family Capacity: supporting multiple family members to implement aided Language modeling

“…The intervention was the same as in a previous study (Author, 2020), with the adaptation of Megan providing coaching to other family participants. The training included learning principles appropriate for both child and adult learners (e.g., memory aid, self-reflection, application in natural setting, coaching; Fazey, 1993 ; Kent-Walsh et al, 2015 ; Meadan et al, 2016 ; 2020 ). Training materials and the protocol used can be obtained by contacting the first author.…”

“…A cascading intervention model includes several levels of training and coaching across stakeholders. For example, Meadan et al ( 2020 ) used a cascading intervention model with four levels: (a) a researcher trained and provided coaching to (b) an early interventionist who supported (c) a parent who implemented communication strategies with (d) the child with communication needs. Such an approach could allow researchers to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of an intervention model in which one family member trains and coaches other family members to implement a strategy such as ALM.…”