Quality Practices for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities and their Families
Investigators:
Lynette Aytch
(lynette_aytch@unc.edu)
, Dina Castro, Debby Cryer, Don Bailey
Project staff: Laurie Selz-Campbell, Lynette Keyes, David Gardner, Cindy White
Research questions/goals: - identify practices that represent high quality early intervention service
- develop and validate a comprehensive instrument to evaluate the quality of services
- rate the quality of services provided by a sample of early intervention programs
- investigate the relationship between quality of services and child and family outcomes
- identify child, family, and program characteristics that are correlated with positive outcomes
A substantial body of research has documented that the quality of child care correlates with outcomes for children, with higher quality programs yielding superior outcomes. Although assessment of child care quality is an important component of quality services for young children with disabilities, it is not sufficient. It is not sufficient because early intervention services are comprised of a broad array of service provided in multiple contexts by a variety of professionals. In addition, early intervention services must be individualized to meet the specific needs of children and families.
Although there is a large body of research addressing the efficacy of early intervention for young children with disabilities, there is not a comparable body of research documenting the quality of early intervention programs and demonstrating how variations in quality affect outcomes for young children with disabilities and their families.
This research involved a series of development phases that engaged a broad and diverse group of constituents. Phase I: The initial phase focused on gathering information from multiple sources to broaden our understanding of quality in early childhood care, education, and intervention. The Division of Early Childhood (DEC) Recommended Practices (l993; 2000) provided an essential roadmap for understanding and defining indicators of quality practice for young children with disabilities and their families.
Survey and focus groups were conducted with early intervention professionals and families in North Carolina. An advisory board of parents, program administrators, policy makers, and services providers worked on the project from its initiation through the multi-state field test. In addition, a diverse group of technical consultants, who were early intervention university academics and researchers, provided ongoing input into the conceptualization and development of the EISAS.
Phase 2: The second phase focused on getting detailed feedback from program personnel and families on the initial draft of the instrument. Staff from 5 programs in NC and programs in Connecticut and Milwaukee participated in this process. Many participating programs in North Carolina were part of multi-county consortiums, which meant that the program provided services to a wide geographical area. The review process required that program staff meet with the development team to thoroughly review and critique the instrument.
Phase 3: Twenty-nine early intervention programs from 8 states were recruited to participate in a field study of the EISAS. In addition to the participation of program staff, 457 parent surveys were returned from the 29 programs.
At present, there is no widely accepted instrument for assessing early intervention practice. The EISAS has been submitted for publication review so that it may be available for program to use throughout the country. Also, early intervention professionals in other counties have expressed an interest in the EISAS.
Policy, practice, or professional implications: This instrument would provide something similar to the early childhood environment rating scales for early intervention programs that would be the first step in establishing national standards for assessing program quality.
Guidelines for effective practices are available (DEC 2000), but the guidelines are not necessarily in a format that are feasible for programs to use in evaluation. This effort to provide a standard format that is easy to use and based on professional standards endorsed by the field, makes the EISAS a potentially valuable contribution to quality practice, program policy, and professional development.
Publications, products:
Publications
Bailey, D. B., McWilliam, R. A., Darkes, L. A. (Aytch), Hebbler, K., Simeonsson, R., Spiker, D., & Wagner, M. (l998). Family outcomes in early intervention: A framework for program evaluation and efficacy research. Exceptional Children, 64, 313-327.
Aytch, L. S., Cryer, D., Bailey, D. B., & Selz, L. (1999). Defining and assessing quality in early intervention programs for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families: Challenges and unresolved issues. Early Education and Development, 10, 7-23.
Bailey, D. B., Aytch, L. S., Odom, S. L., Symons, F., & Wolery, M. (1999). Early intervention as we know it. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Review, 5, 11-20.
Products:
Early Intervention Services Assessment Scale (EISAS): Program Assessment -- - Parent Survey -- English
- Parent Survey -- Spanish
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