This issue is dedicated to those who serve on the Infants & Young Children (IYC) editorial board. IYC is committed to assisting authors new to publishing, and those whose first language is not English. The IYC editorial board have been instrumental to the editing process. The reviews I receive are stellar, with instructive and constructive feedback and guidance to the authors. This level of commitment to assisting a potential author can be time consuming at times, and beyond a typical manuscript review process. In many instances, reviewers have been instrumental to moving a manuscript to acceptance and publication. Without the editorial review board, this level of feedback would be impossible.
At this time, I would like to publicly thank those who are retiring from the editorial review board after many years of service. They have each made substantial contributions to the field of early childhood intervention, and I am grateful they assisted the editorial process for IYC.
CURRENT ISSUE
Our first article, by Mary Frances Hanline, Jennifer Nicole Eldridge, and Audrey Robbins, is a systematic review of single-case intervention studies of young children with and without disabilities. Over the past 10 years, 39 peer-reviewed studies suggested the effectiveness of pairing young children without disabilities as peers in interventions with young children with disabilities. The studies included interventions across developmental areas and with young children with differing disabilities. The review also found that only half of the studies met standards of research rigor, and few addressed the generalization, maintenance, and social validity of intervention outcomes. The authors conclude with a call for more rigorous and systematic research to identify factors that contribute to positive and lasting behavior change in young children with disabilities when implementing this intervention practice.
Our second article, by Irina Quebles and colleagues, presents a mixed-method study that examined the experiences and perceptions of 62 Latinx mothers of infants and toddlers who were screened at two urban Federally Qualified Health Centers and referred to early intervention (EI). The first phase of the study conducted phone surveys with 62 mothers, and the second phase interviewed 13 of these mothers about their experiences with their child during screening, the linking to services, the EI evaluation, and subsequent EI services. Both were offered in both English and Spanish. While more than 90% of the 62 mothers who participated in the phone surveys reported positive experiences with screening, EI services, and their gained knowledge about their child's development, the 13 mothers who were interviewed reported mixed perceptions about screening and access to EI. The authors recommend that EI systems and providers use the findings provided in this exploratory study to further investigate the need for improved access into EI and assistance with service navigation for Latinx families.
Next, Brooke Sawyer and colleagues describe the development process for Parents Plus, a parent-implemented intervention for preschool children with developmental language disorders. The intervention is online and consists of three components: training delivered through an app that educates parents on how to use a language facilitation strategy; parent implementation of the strategy during naturally occurring routines; and practice-based coaching provided through Zoom. Program development proceeded through three steps, each informed by parent input and child progress, which are described. Social validity data on the intervention's goals, procedures, content, and outcomes were collected during each phase of the development process, and these data informed revisions of the Parents Plus program. Outcomes of the process suggest strong social validity for the intervention program.
The next article by Melissa McCarthy, Greg Leigh, and Michael Arthur-Kelly describes an exploratory study that investigated the differences in implementation of family-centered early intervention (FCEI) when delivered in person or through tele-practice using videoconferencing. The FCEI model emphasizes the relationship of the practitioner, caregiver, and young child, and within this triad, practitioners use capacity-building practices to foster caregivers' ability to support their child's development. The study measured the implementation of FCEI in two groups of triads: 16 families who received in-person FCEI, and 12 families who received FCEI through tele-practice. The investigators measured practitioner behaviors, caregiver behaviors, and the reciprocal influences of those behaviors during the intervention. The results suggested that FCEI provided through tele- practice may enhance practitioners' use of family-centered practices, which, in turn, supported greater participation in intervention by caregivers. The authors suggest the need for further research about EI outcomes when delivered through tele-practice.
Danika Pfeiffer, Julie Feuerstein, Dana Herman, and Rebecca Landa provide our last article, which focuses on the need to close the research-to-practice gap between evidence-based intervention practices and current practice with children with disabilities in early childhood settings. The article describes a professional developmental program, the Early Achievements for Child Care Providers Professional Development (EA-CP PD), which was designed to close this gap with childcare providers working in inclusive early childhood classrooms. The study implemented the professional development (PD) program to 10 childcare providers, who were taught to use differentiated instruction with children with disabilities in inclusive classrooms. Focus groups held after the training assessed the providers' perceptions of the PD program and implementation of the EA-CP instructional strategies. Results of the qualitative analysis suggested that providers identified benefits from job-embedded coaching, which supported their acquisition of instructional strategies to enhance children's social communication and language development. Implications from these preliminary findings are discussed and recommendations are provided about the need for effective PD opportunities for service providers in inclusive early childhood programs.
As always, I would like to thank the authors for submitting their work to IYC and the reviewers who assisted the editorial process by offering salient suggestions to bring these manuscripts to publication.
-Mary Beth Bruder, PhD
Editor