Association for Behavior Analysis International

In early childhood settings, research has clearly shown that educators do not consistently implement evidence-based practices with fidelity. Ongoing professional development has been shown to improve educator implementation of behavioral interventions; however, the field lacks clear guidelines regarding the effective components and intensity of coaching. This is further complicated by the varied educational backgrounds of typical educational teams. The following studies assessed the impact of professional development practices on teacher fidelity of evidence-based practicesbased on the science of applied behavior analysisin early childhood settings. Some studies further assessed the association between resultant increased teacher fidelity and child outcomes. The professional development packages included brief didactic training, behavioral skills training, in-vivo coaching, or post-session feedback (in-person or via e-mail). Primary participants included lead teachers, assistant teachers, paraprofessionals, and student interns; secondary participants included young children who received the behavioral interventions. Data across studies indicated that ongoing professional development led to increases in fidelity of teacher implementation of targeted practices; and that increases in teacher fidelity may be associated with improved child outcomes.

The research on professional development in early childhood indicates that ongoing follow-up support is necessary to improve classroom practices and facilitate child learning. Performance-based feedback is one form of on-going support that has been identified as an evidence-based professional development practice for increasing educators use of intervention practices across populations and age ranges. However, long term, sustained use of recommended practices by teachers who are not aware that they are being observedwhich is the holy grail of professional developmenthas not been examined. Across a series of studies we examined two procedurestext messaging and emailfor delivering performance-based feedback to early childhood classroom teachers. Text messaging and email provide written documentation of feedback and can be delivered quickly without interrupting the teachers workday. All teachers increased their generalized use of multiple different recommended practices across settings and during covert observations when they did not know they were being observed and maintained levels over time. However, there was some variability across teachers, which suggested individualized approaches to professional development are warranted.

The role of paraprofessionals in early childhood (EC) contexts varies widely; many are expected to appropriately implement instructional and behavioral interventions with relatively little supervision. Studies are needed to understand effective strategies for improving adult behavior and to determine the frequency and dosage of assistance required for high-fidelity implementation. Two studies presented together investigated the use of behavioral skills training strategies to improve paraprofessional implementation, using in-situ and/or out-of-context training. The first coaching package demonstrated out-of-context behavioral skills training was ineffective in improving paraprofessionals implementation of systematic prompting procedures with children with ASD. Following this training, in-situ modeling, prompting, and feedback produced increases in implementation across three paraprofessionals in a special education classroom. In the next study, the in-situ components alone (i.e., without initial behavioral skills training) was used to increase paraprofessionals prompting of engagement and social interactions during small group art activities in an inclusive EC center. Data from both studies indicated increases in paraprofessional implementation of instructional and behavioral strategies is improved with in-situ support, and changes in teacher behaviors may be associated with increases in desirable child behaviors. Differences in paraprofessional responses associated with adult and child characteristics will be discussed.