Expanding the Infant Achievements Intervention Through Community Partnerships

Not Applicable

• Conditions: Developmental Delay; Language Development; Child Development; Infant Development
• Interventions: Behavioral: Building Capacity for Infant Achievements in Child Care

• Registration Number: NCT06312358
• Lead Sponsor: Hugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger, Inc.

Brief Summary

The goal of the research study is to increase teachers' implementation of evidence-based practices in Early Head Start classrooms through the delivery of a professional development (PD) training intervention. The main questions that the study aims to answer are:

1. Does teacher participation in a PD intervention improve the use of evidence-based practices from pre- to posttest?

2. To what extent is the PD intervention feasible to implement in an established child care program?

3. To what extent is the PD program acceptable to teachers?

Participants will attend PD workshops and participate in content-related job-embedded coaching sessions during the implementation of the study.

Detailed Description

The primary objective of the research study is to increase teachers' implementation of evidence-based practices in Early Head Start classrooms through the delivery of a professional development (PD) training intervention. It is hypothesized that teachers' fidelity to developmentally-appropriate practices, assessed through classroom observation measures, will increase following their participation in a comprehensive PD training intervention. The secondary hypotheses are that (1) the PD intervention is feasible to implement in an established child care program, and (2) the PD program is acceptable to teachers. Teacher participants will attend PD workshops, co-developed with community partners, and engage in follow-up job-embedded coaching sessions occurring weekly in their classrooms.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2024-03-04
• Study First Submitted QC: 2024-03-09
• Study First Posted: 2024-03-15
• Study Start: 2024-04-01
• Status Verified: 2024-10
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-04-17
• Last Update Posted: 2025-04-22
• Primary Completion: 2025-06-01
• Study Completion: 2025-07

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 15

Inclusion Criteria

• Participants must currently work in an early childhood classroom serving children between 8-36 months of age.
• Participants must work in the role of a teacher or teacher assistant in an Early Head Start location.
• Participants must be willing to participate in two 60-90-minute trainings/workshops.
• Participants must be willing to participate in eight follow-up job-embedded coaching sessions

Exclusion Criteria

• Works in a childcare setting outside of the Baltimore metro area
• Non-English speaking

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: SINGLE_GROUP

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Teacher Professional Development Workshop and Coaching	Building Capacity for Infant Achievements in Child Care	Teachers will participate in a professional development workshop session (approximately 2 hours in duration) followed by 8 weekly coaching sessions (approximately 45-60 minutes in duration). The study team (trained coaches) will utilize the Practice-Based Coaching model (Snyder et al., 2015) to support teachers' use of developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood classrooms. Teachers will be coached to implement strategies that foster responsive and nurturing relationships with young children.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Classroom Quality (as assessed by scores on the TPITOS)	Change from baseline/pretest up to posttest, up to 16 weeks.	Classroom quality will be measured by total scores (ranging from 0-100%) on the Teaching Pyramid Model Infant-Toddler Observation Scale (TPITOS) which assesses the extent to which an early childhood program's staff is fostering responsive, nurturing relationships with young children and promoting strong social-emotional development.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Kennedy Krieger Institute; 🇺🇸 Baltimore, Maryland, United States