Siller, M., Morgan, L., Fuhrmeister, S., Wedderburn, Q., Schirmer, B., Chatson, E., & Gillespie, S. (2024). Feasibility and acceptability of a low-resource-intensive, transdiagnostic intervention for children with social-communication challenges in early childhood education settings. Autism,28(3), 587-599.
Abstract
Preschool classrooms provide a unique context for supporting the development of children with social-communication challenges. This study is an uncontrolled clinical trial of an adapted professional development intervention for preschool teachers (Social Emotional Engagement-Knowledge & Skills-Early Childhood). Social Emotional Engagement-Knowledge & Skills-Early Childhood is a low-resource-intensive, transdiagnostic intervention to address the learning needs of children with social-communication challenges and consists of four asynchronous online modules and three synchronous coaching sessions. The current research evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of intervention and research procedures, implemented in authentic early childhood education settings. Participants included one teacher and one target child with social-communication challenges from 25 preschool classrooms, sampled to maximize variability. Overall, the current research revealed high levels of feasibility, with 9 out of 10 benchmarks met: (a) procedures for participant recruitment reliably identified a neurodiverse sample of children with teacher-reported social-communication challenges; (b) teachers showed high levels of program engagement and Social Emotional Engagement-Knowledge & Skills-Early Childhood completion (76%); and (c) results revealed a robust pattern of gains in Social Emotional Engagement-Knowledge & Skills-Early Childhood classrooms and associations among key outcome measures (including active engagement, student teacher relationship, social-communication competencies). Implications for the design of a subsequent, larger effectiveness-implementation hybrid trial (Type 1) are discussed.
学前教室为支持有社交挑战的儿童的发展提供了一个独特的环境。本研究是一项非对照临床试验,聚焦于学前教师的适应性专业发展干预(社会情绪参与知识和童年早期技能)。社会情绪参与知识和童年早期技能是一种低资源密集型、经诊断的干预措施,用以应对有社交挑战的儿童的学习需求,包括四个异步在线模块和三个同步辅导课程。本研究评估了在真实的早期教育环境中,干预和研究程序的可行性和可接受性。参与者包括来自25对学前班的教师-社交挑战儿童组,采样以最大限度地提高多样性。总体上,本研究结果显示出较高的可行性,10个基准中有9个达到标准:(a)招募参与者的程序通过教师报告社交调挑战,可靠地确定了一个神经多样化儿童样本;(b)教师表现出高水平的参与与实施(76%);(c)结果显示了,社会情绪参与知识和童年早期技能教室和协会在关键指标结果上((包括积极参与、学生教师关系、社会沟通能力)),均显示出强劲的增长。本研究还讨论了后续的一个更大范围有效实施的混合试验(类型1)设计。