Distilling Check-in/Check-Out into Its Core Practice Elements Through an Expert Consensus Process.

Check-in/Check-out (CICO) is a widely implemented evidence-based program for supporting students with at-risk levels of social and emotional behavior concerns. It is comprised of several core features described in the previous literature, including practice elements, which are the specific actions that are delivered directly to students, and implementation components, which are actions that support the implementation by adults. Practice elements and implementation components are both important to implementation but have been combined and conflated in descriptions of CICO implementation. Well-defined and differentiated practice elements could provide improved clarity in communicating implementation expectations to front-line implementers as well as support future research into essential active ingredients and measures of front-line intervention fidelity. The purpose of the present study was to distill, differentiate, and operationally define the student-facing practice elements of CICO. A panel of research experts and practice experts participated in a three-round modified e-Delphi process that led to the identification and operational definition of 19 discreet practice elements organized into five domains. Results are discussed in terms in implications for future development of measures of commitment and intervention fidelity, future research into active ingredients of CICO, and in terms of how well-defined practice elements can improve communication of implementation expectations for front-line implementers of CICO such as teachers. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12310-021-09495-x.

Preschool teachers' selection of social communication interventions for children with autism: An application of the theory of planned behavior.

LAY ABSTRACT: Preschool special educators' are more likely to choose an educational practice to teach a young child with autism a social communication skill if they have positive beliefs about it. We asked preschool special educators to read a description of an autistic student and their social communication goal and imagine they were the student's teacher. We then asked them to pick one of five practices to teach the student. We also asked them questions to understand their attitudes about, confidence in their ability to use, and their perception of their coworkers' support of each practice. There are many research-based practices that a teacher could use to help children learn, and preschool teachers often make these decisions for their students. Teachers' beliefs varied in how supportive they were of each practice, and research shows people are more likely to do something that their beliefs support. In this study, they had more supportive beliefs and were more likely to use some practices, like naturalistic intervention, than other practices, like discrete trial teaching. By knowing this, researchers can help teachers use practices that their beliefs support and help change teachers' beliefs to be supportive of a practice they may need to use.

The Use of Generalizability Theory to Inform Sampling of Educator Language Used With Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Purpose A myriad features can impact the nature, frequency, and length of adult-child interactions important for language learning. Empirical investigations of language learning opportunities for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) provide limited generalizable insight, with inferences more constrained to the sample than is often considered. The aim of this study was to explore a multidimensional understanding of reliability and define optimal measurement procedures for a measurement approach used to examine the language of preschool educators interacting with children with ASD. Method We employed the logic of Generalizability Theory to differentiate sources of error for two measurement facets, occasion and observer. We video-recorded four 15-min occasions of educator-child interactions for 11 participants with ASD during free-play in their respective inclusive preschool classrooms. Two trained observers coded all videos for six educator language variables: open-ended questions/statements, choice questions, yes/no questions, imitation prompts, statements, and other talk. Results The generalizability studies illustrated that, across all variables measured, observer accounted for little to no error. Occasion, however, accounted for much of the error for all language variables. To determine the number of occasions needed to achieve stable estimates of the variables, we manipulated occasion in the decision study. Five to more than 15 occasions were needed to achieve stability in educator language variables. Conclusion To advance our understanding of the language learning environments of preschool classrooms that serve children with ASD, researchers must understand how aspects of the measurement design in those environments, such as occasion, impact the inferences they make.