Procedures for Developing Evidence-Informed Performance Checklists for Improving Early Childhood Intervention Practices

Abstract

A conceptualization-operationalization-measurement framework is described for developing evidence-informed early childhood intervention performance checklists. Performance checklists include lists of practice indicators where the indicators, taken together, operationally define particular types of intervention practices that, when used as intended, can be expected to have desired outcomes and benefits. The use of the framework for operationalizing recommended practices is described to illustrate its applicability for developing tools for improving early childhood intervention.

Research Foundations for Evidence-Informed Early Childhood Intervention Performance Checklists

“…The performance checklists were initially developed using the Division for Early Childhood [16] early intervention/early childhood special education recommended practices as the sources of practice indicators [11]. It was determined, however, that the DEC recommended practices differed considerably in their formatting, coverage, specificity, and internal coherence, and that the ways in which many of the practices are written, essentially made attempts to infer intent futile.…”

“…Procedural or performance checklists include lists of the tasks, steps, or behavior indicators required to complete different practices in a competent manner [7]. Evidence-informed performance checklists include indicators based on research findings establishing an empirical relationship between the checklist practice indicators and intended or expected outcomes [11]. The reader is referred elsewhere for descriptions of the different methods and procedures for developing checklists, for example, [4,7,11,12].…”

“…The checklists were developed at the Early Childhood Technical Assistance (ECTA) Center at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. The author and his colleagues at the ECTA Center developed the checklists using early childhood intervention recommended practices [16] as the foundations for (1) unpacking the recommended practices to identify internally consistent sets of practice indicators where (2) findings from research syntheses and empirical studies were used to select or develop practice indicators which research indicates are empirically related to outcomes of interest [11]. Figure 1 shows the framework used to develop the performance checklists.…”

Practitioner-informed improvements to early childhood intervention performance checklists and practice guides

“…The checklists were developed using a conceptualization-operationalizationmeasurement framework (Babbie, 2009;Dunst, 2017c;Dunst, Trivette, & Raab, 2015) where research findings from primary research syntheses and reviews (Dunst, in preparation) informed checklist indicator selection or development. Performance checklists differ from other types of checklists by specifying a "list of tasks or steps required to complete a procedure [intervention practice] successfully" (Wilson, 2013, p. 4).…”

Developing Evidence-Informed Early Childhood Intervention E-Learning Lessons, Performance Checklists and Practice Guides

“…Research evidence about the key characteristics of ECI practices was used to select or develop performance checklist indicators (Dunst, 2017c). Performance checklist indicators are, in turn, used to inform the content of the practices that are the focus of both e-learning lessons and practice guides (Dunst, 2017b). The content and organization of the practice guides are informed by best practices for reinforcing the content of the e-learning lessons (Ghirardini, 2011).…”