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RouTEAM: Home and School Partnerships to Support Communication for Children with Complex Communication Needs

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Abstract

A workshop format is often the professional development (PD) model used by educators; however, research shows that workshops are often not sufficient to change educator behavior. Additionally, including caregivers in PD can promote shared decision-making and support children’s transfer of skills between home and school environments. This pilot study examined the effectiveness of a PD intervention delivered to caregiver-educator teams that included team-based coaching to target adults’ use of evidence-based strategies delivered in a planned instructional sequence (i.e., CPR - create a communication opportunity, prompt as needed, respond to child communication) designed to support reciprocal interactions with children and use of aided augmentative or alternative communication. Using a multiple baseline across five caregiver-educator-child triads, the effect of intervention on adults’ percentage of correct CPR cycles was compared to a baseline condition in which adults learned isolated strategy implementation in a workshop format. Five adults showed positive behavior changes when intervention was implemented at three different time points, demonstrating promise of the intervention; however, for reasons discussed herein, the study produced mixed results. Results are consistent with prior research, and may be useful to administrators, educators, or families interested in PD and collaboration across home and school settings.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Special Education, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Sarah E. Ivy

  2. School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Michelle C. S. Therrien

  3. School of Teacher Education, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Kelly Whalon, Mert Bilgin, Sarah Cox & Nanette Hammons

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  1. Sarah E. Ivy
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  2. Michelle C. S. Therrien
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  3. Kelly Whalon
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  4. Mert Bilgin
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  5. Sarah Cox
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  6. Nanette Hammons
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Correspondence to Sarah E. Ivy.

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The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval

Prior to conducting this research, the study was approved by a university and school district institutional review board, and all research activities were performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.

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Written informed consent was obtained for all participants included in the study. Parents provided consent for child participants.

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Ivy, S.E., Therrien, M.C.S., Whalon, K. et al. RouTEAM: Home and School Partnerships to Support Communication for Children with Complex Communication Needs. J Dev Phys Disabil 33, 351–372 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-020-09752-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-020-09752-y

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