Early Interventionists’ Caregiver Coaching: A Mixed Methods Approach Exploring Experiences and Practices

Abstract

Early intervention (EI) for infants and toddlers with disabilities relies on family-centered practices. Caregiver coaching, one family-centered practice used in EI, can lead to improved supports by caregivers and improved outcomes for children with disabilities. However, within the research literature, little is understood about the experiences, practices, and barriers EI providers face when coaching caregivers. To understand these issues, a mixed method design was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data using questionnaires, EI provider interviews, and coaching logs from EI providers. Results from all three data collection sources for 19 early interventionists provide insight into the perceptions, experiences, benefits, and barriers of caregiver coaching as shared by EI providers in one state. Implications for practice, future research directions, and limitations are discussed.

Measuring parent strategy use in early intervention: Reliability and validity of the Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention Fidelity Rating Scale across strategy types

“…Addressing the research-to-practice gap through implementation science is a necessary next step in improving outcomes for children with ASD (Barton & Fettig, 2013;Haring Biel et al, 2019;Vivanti et al, 2018). Parent-implemented interventions are used at varying degrees in clinical practice, and few clinicians who provide these communication interventions report using parent observation (Douglas et al, 2020). This is not surprising because to our knowledge, there is no widely disseminated tool for clinicians to use to measure parents' use of intervention strategies.…”

Examining US Public Early Intervention for Toddlers With Autism: Characterizing Services and Readiness for Evidence-Based Practice Implementation

“…Data from one early study indicated early intervention providers working with children with ASD had more favorable attitudes toward EBPs than mental health professionals generally and perceived less divergence between their current practice and EBP ( 29 ). However, to the best of our knowledge no recent studies have specifically examined provider attitudes toward the use evidence-based early intervention strategies for ASD, including caregiver involvement in intervention, or whether direct providers are considering the evidence-base of their practices when intervening with their clients ( 14 , 30 ).…”

Early Intervention Service Delivery via Telehealth During COVID-19: A Research-Practice Partnership

“…Research suggests that barriers to the implementation and evaluation of coaching in “real-world” EI practice persist. For example, Douglas et al, (2020) reported that EI providers had experienced difficulty in explaining the process of coaching and engaging parents. Additionally, some aspects of coaching (i.e., modeling, joint planning) were viewed as most important to EI providers.…”

“…Research shows that telehealth may be an efficacious model to serve families in EI ( Cason, 2009 ; 2011 ), including families of young children with various neurodevelopmental conditions including autism spectrum disorders ( Sutherland et al, 2018 ) and Fragile X Syndrome (e.g., Hall et al, 2020 ). Coaching delivered through telehealth has been shown to significantly improve child participation and parent self-efficacy ( Little et al, 2018 ), and be highly acceptable to families ( Wallisch et al, 2019 ).…”