Purpose: The purpose of this project was to develop a social-emotional intervention, Social Emotional Learning in Early Childhood for Infants and Toddlers (SELECT), to increase the quality of key parent–child interaction skills, improve children's social-emotional skills, and ultimately improve school readiness for infants and toddlers with disabilities. Significant numbers of infants and toddlers—particularly those with developmental disabilities—have social-emotional problems that are neither recognized nor targeted for intervention. Although relationships between early social-emotional competence and later academic success have been documented, little attention had been given to the development of a curriculum-based approach aimed at evaluating important social-emotional constructs and tying the evaluation to simple, straightforward, routines-based early intervention in the home.

Project Activities: This research used an iterative process to develop an intervention for infants and toddlers and their parents in home visiting programs. Data from multiple sources, including interventionists and parents, were used in the development process to guide revisions. The research team documented the feasibility and potential efficacy of the intervention through two types of studies. The feasibility study consisted of preliminary tests of the intervention to examine acceptability and feasibility using child performance data and provider feedback to further guide, evaluate, and enhance the intervention. The pilot study used a multiple baseline single-case design to examine fidelity of implementation and the promise for efficacy in enhancing parent–child interaction skills and improved child social-emotional competence.

Key Outcomes: The main findings of this study, as reported by the principal investigator, are as follows:

• Examination of the SELECT intervention, representing key infant and toddler social-emotional and behavioral constructs, suggests that it is a comprehensive, feasible intervention to improve infant/toddler social emotional competence.
• The SELECT intervention was found to be delivered with fidelity by early intervention (EI) providers coaching parents and by parents delivering the intervention to their infants and toddlers.
• A single-case design pilot study provided preliminary evidence that SELECT was effectively implemented through coaching by EI service providers with parents during home visits. For the majority of families, coaching led to increases in the parents' correct use of strategies, which then resulted in positive changes in child behavior based on the child's individualized targets (for example, the ability to communicate with caregivers, increased expressive language, and fewer tantrums). Parents also provided positive ratings on the extent to which the intervention was perceived as acceptable, feasible, and effective.
• Overall, the results provided support that promising interventions for social-emotional competence can be delivered by EI providers and parents in the home setting using everyday activities and routines.

Structured Abstract

Setting: The implementation of the intervention took place in family homes in urban and rural Oregon. The focus groups were conducted at the university or local early intervention sites.

Sample: Approximately 40 parents and their infants and toddlers (ages 2 to 36 months) who were eligible for services under Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) participated in this study. In addition, eight EI providers participated over the course of this project.

Intervention: SELECT is the curricular component to a social-emotional intervention that links directly to the benchmarks of the Social Emotional Assessment Measure (SEAM), an assessment previously developed and validated by this research team. Providers of IDEA Part C services work with families in their homes and focus on self-regulation, communication, and adaptive functioning. SELECT addresses two different age groups—infants (2 to 18 months) and toddlers (19 to 36 months). The intervention consists of two major components. The Interventionist Strategies component is intended to guide providers in their work with parents during home visits. The Parent Activities component provides suggestions and examples of strategies that support parents in addressing targeted social-emotional goals embedded within daily routine activities.

Research Design and Methods: In the first phase of this project, the intervention was developed and refined through three steps: 1) A team consisting of experts in social-emotional assessment and curriculum development and teachers engaged in the initial development of the intervention; 2) experts in research, early intervention, social-emotional development and assessment, parent–child interactions, and coaching reviewed the initial intervention and provided feedback for revisions; and 3) naturalistic intervention trials took place in which early interventionists used the SEAM to assess children and identify appropriate social-emotional goals, implemented portions of SELECT with families during home visits to address identified goals, and provided feedback on the usability and feasibility of SELECT through focus groups and surveys. The next phase included the feasibility and pilot studies. The feasibility study examined whether early interventionists could implement SELECT with fidelity in home settings with parents, whether this fidelity is related to parent practices, and whether the parents are able to implement SELECT strategies with their children. Feedback at this stage was used to further guide, evaluate, and enhance the intervention. The pilot study examined evidence of the promise of the intervention for achieving its intended outcomes. In the first part, early interventionists implemented the revised intervention during home visits conducted weekly or biweekly with two parent–child dyads to determine fidelity of implementation (by both interventionist and parent) and whether parent–child interactions were enhanced. In the second part of the pilot study, a multiple baseline single-case design was used to examine changes in parenting behaviors and key child social-emotional skills.

Control Condition: In the pilot study, the participants served as their own controls through the use of a baseline phase within a single-case design.

Key Measures: Usability and feasibility surveys developed by the researchers were used for early interventionists and parents after naturalistic intervention trials and the feasibility studies. Child outcome measures included the SEAM, Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social-Emotional (ASQ:SE), and the Infant-Toddler Social-Emotional Assessment (ITSEA). Parent–child interactions were observed and rated using the Parenting Interactions with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes (PICCOLO). Fidelity checklists were developed and used to rate early interventionists' use of the SELECT intervention as well as parents' implementation of SELECT strategies.

Data Analytic Strategy: Data from the multiple sources during the iterative development were used to triangulate major findings using themes to further refine the intervention and provide descriptive data on the feasibility and appropriateness of SELECT. The single-case design studies for the pilot test were analyzed using visual analysis and calculation of effect sizes, and the researchers used several techniques to account for the non-independence of observations.

Related IES Projects: Project SEAM: Preventing Behavior Disorders and Improving Social-Emotional Competence for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities (R324A070255)

Products and Publications

ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.

Project website: https://select.uoregon.edu