Project Activities
The research team used an iterative process to develop Toddler Talk using focus groups, interviews, surveys, single-case design, and field testing. A randomized controlled trial was used to pilot test the promise of the model and its associated PD on teacher implementation and child language and behavior for toddlers enrolled in childcare settings, including children at risk for poor outcomes in these areas.
Structured Abstract
Setting
This research took place in community childcare and Early Head Start classrooms serving toddlers from lower resourced urban and suburban communities in Tennessee and Washington.
Sample
The sample included 50 early childhood educators and 98 toddlers ages 24-36 months enrolled in their classrooms (approximately 4 children per classroom) across all phases of the project. Approximately 10% of children evidenced expressive and receptive language delays that put them at high risk for persistent developmental language disorders and social-emotional skill deficits.
Toddler Talk is a Tier 1 (universal) intervention blending the Pyramid Model and EMT procedures to teach language and social-emotional skills across the day and in small group activities. The Pyramid Model is a framework of evidence-based practices for promoting social-emotional competence and preventing and addressing challenging behavior. EMT is an evidence-based naturalistic communication intervention that uses responsive interactions, language modeling, and prompting to support communication in ongoing teacher-child interactions. The PD combines the evidence-based training strategies (Practice-Based Coaching, Teach-Model-Coach-Review) associated with the two models to enhance implementation fidelity.
Research design and methods
A rapid cycle iterative design process was used to examine the conditions under which the Toddler Talk model has an impact and the PD approach that best supports teachers' learning and implementation of the model. Over the course of the project, the research team conducted: a) focus groups and a developmental case study, b) a single-case design study, and c) a pilot randomized controlled trial. Development of the intervention and PD protocol, establishing the reliability and validity of fidelity measures, and establishing the social validity of the intervention and PD protocol was embedded within and across these studies as a part of the iterative design process. The team piloted cost data collection during the field test and conducted the full cost analysis during the pilot test in the final year.
Control condition
During the pilot study, teachers in the control group engaged in business-as-usual teaching. They also received access to Toddler Talk training materials and our coaching consultation sessions after post-testing.
Key measures
Qualitative (interviews, focus groups) and quantitative (surveys) responses from practitioners and experts were used to assess the feasibility, effectiveness, acceptability, and overall satisfaction with the Toddler Talk model and the associated PD protocol. Implementation fidelity measures include the TPITOS EMT for class-wide implementation of the intervention and LABOR observation ratings for teacher linguistic input and use of blended practices. The CLASS-T was used to assess the quality of interactions between educators and students, which have been shown in previous studies to predict positive child development. Child language outcomes were measured with the parent-rated McArthur Bates Communication Development Inventory (MCDI), a structured language sample (Sentence Diversity Priming Task- SDPT), and the Quick Interactive Language Skills-Toddler (QUILS-TOD). Child social-emotional outcomes were measured with the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment – Toddler (DECA-T). The team also used the Individual Growth and Development Indicators – Early Communication Indicators (IGDI) for the single-case study.
Data analytic strategy
To develop the intervention model, the research team used a mixed-methods design that included quantitative (descriptive statistics based on surveys) and qualitative (inductive methods based on transcripts and field notes of focus groups) analyses. For the single-case design study, they used visual analysis of effect sizes to examine the effects of an initial application of the model. For the pilot randomized trial study, they used multilevel modeling to evaluate treatment effects on early childhood educators’ growth over the course of the intervention, as well as treatment effects on children’s pretest-posttest gains within their classrooms. Further, the team used descriptive analyses of survey ratings and interviews to assess the social validity of the model.
Key outcomes
The main findings of this project, as reported by the principal investigator, are as follows:
- Educators who participated in Toddler Talk coaching and workshops rated the usefulness of the Toddler Talk strategies and coaching highly and reported using the strategies frequently throughout their classroom day.
- In the randomized trial, the intervention (Toddler Talk) educators had significantly greater growth than business-as-usual control educators on two of the three educator outcomes (TPITOS EMT and LABOR) during the second half of the intervention period. No significant treatment effects on change were found on CLASS-T growth, however.
- Controlling for pretest and age, children enrolled in intervention classrooms demonstrated significantly better pretest-posttest change on 7 of 12 expressive language sample scales, indicating that the Toddler Talk framework has the potential to facilitate early social communication in classroom settings.
- Although the research team did not find significant treatment effects on child social-emotional behavior examining pretest-posttest change, they did find significant positive effects on parent ratings of the DECA for children in classrooms whose educators completed at least one more Toddler Talk session than the 13.8-session intervention mean.
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Products and publications
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ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.
Select Publications:
Cunningham, J. E., Chow, J. C., Artman Meeker, K., Taylor, A., Hemmeter, M. L., & Kaiser, A. P. (2023). A conceptual model for a blended intervention approach to support early language and social-emotional development in toddler classrooms. Infants & Young Children, 36(1), 53-73.
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