What Do I Do with the Evidence Putting DECs Recommended Practices to Use

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What Do I Do with the Evidence? Putting DECs
Recommended Practices to Use
Susan Sandall
Beth Rous
Sarah A. Mulligan
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What is DEC?

The Division for Early Childhood of the Council
for Exceptional Children
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What is DEC?

• Membership Organization
• Birth through 8 years
• Young children with disabilities and other
  special needs
• Promotes policies and advances evidence-based
  practices

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Today we will focus on.

• What are Recommended Practices?
• How were they developed?
• Why are they important?
• How can the practices be used to ensure program
  improvement and high quality services?

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Setting the Context

• Scientifically-based Practices
• validated by research
• Evidence-based Practices
• best available research
• professional wisdom experience
• consumer values
• Recommended Practices
• set of practices designed to inform decisions
  about services

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History of Recommended Practices

• 2000
• Focus Groups
• Analyses Coding of
• Research Literature
• Synthesis
• Field Validation
• Multiple Products and
• Dissemination Efforts

• 1991
• Focus groups
• Field validated
• Book of
• Recommended
• Practices

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Investigators

• Barbara Smith
• Division for Early Childhood
• University of Colorado Denver
• David Sexton and Marcia Lobman
• LSU Health Sciences Center
• Mary McLean
• University Of Wisconsin Milwaukee
• Susan Sandall
• University of Washington

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Identifying Recommended Practices

• Experience Professional Wisdom

• Research-
• Based Practices

Field Validation
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Overarching Goal

• Build on and extend the foundation of quality
  programs for all children to meet the specific
  needs of children with disabilities.

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Synthesize And Syncretize Practices

• Integrate Literature Based Practices and
  Stakeholder Focus Group
• Which Practices Have Research Evidence to
  Support?
• Which Practices are Supported Only by Experience
  or Values?

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Field Validation of Practices

• Verification Among Experts
• Field Validation
• 200 Family Members
• 400 Practitioners
• 200 Administration/Higher Education
• Respond to
• This is a recommended practice (importance)
• Extent to which see the practice (usage)

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Resulting in

• 240 Recommended Practices
• Across 5 Direct Service Strands and 2 Indirect
  Support Strands

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Strand 1 - Assessment (Neisworth and Bagnato)

• 46 Practices
• Professional and family collaboration
• Individualized and appropriate to child and
  family
• Provides useful information
• Information is shared in respectful and useful
  ways
• Meets legal and procedural requirements

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Strand 2 Child-Focused (Wolery)

• 27 Practices
• Adults design environments to promote childrens
  safety, active engagement, learning,
  participation, and membership.
• Adults use ongoing data to individualize and
  adapt practices to meet each childs changing
  nature.
• Adults use systematic procedures within and
  across environments, activities, and routines to
  promote childrens learning and participation.

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Strand 3 Family-Based (Trivette Dunst)

• 17 Practices
• Families and professionals share responsibility
  and work collaboratively.
• Practices strengthen family functioning.
• Practices are individualized and flexible.
• Practices are strengths- and assets-based.

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Strand 4 Interdisciplinary Models (McWilliam)

• 19 Practices
• Teams including family members make decisions and
  work together.
• Professionals cross disciplinary boundaries.
• Intervention is focused on function, not
  services.
• Regular caregivers and regular routines provide
  the most appropriate opportunities for childrens
  learning and receiving most other interventions.

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Strand 5 Technology Applications (Stremel)

• 22 Practices
• Professionals utilize assistive technology in
  intervention programs with children.
• Families and professionals collaborate in
  planning and implementing the use of assistive
  technology.
• Families and professionals use technology to
  access information and support.
• Training and technical support programs are
  available to support technology applications.

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Strand 6 Policies, Procedures Systems Change
(Harbin and Salisbury)

• 43 Practices
• Families and professionals shape policy at the
  national, state, and local levels.
• Public policies promote the use of Recommended
  Practices.
• Program policies and administration promote
• family participation in decision making,
• the use of Recommended Practices,
• interagency and interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Program policies, administration and leadership
  promote program evaluation and systems change
  efforts.

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Strand 7 Personnel Preparation (Miller and
Stayton)

• 66 Practices
• Families are involved in learning activities.
• Learning activities
• are interdisciplinary and interagency.
• are systematically designed and sequenced.
• include the study of cultural and linguistic
  diversity.
• Learning activities and evaluation procedures are
  designed to meet the needs of students and staff.
• Field experiences are systematically designed and
  supervised.
• Faculty and other personnel trainers are
  qualified and well-prepared for their role in
  personnel preparation.
• Professional development activities are
  systematically designed and implemented.

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DECs Recommended Practices

• Each Chapter includes
• Guiding Principles
• Organization of the Practices--the take home
  messages
• The Practices with examples
• Glossary
• Resources--print, video, web

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Why are Recommended Practices Important?

• Represents collective wisdom
• Identifies what practices work
• Provides a framework to define quality
• Supports positive outcomes
• Applies to all settings

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• Quality Practices
• Quality Service
• Better Outcomes

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Recommended Practices
Quality Practices for All Children
Program
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Practices related to Policies, Procedures
Systems Change

• Families and professionals shape policy at the
  national, state, and local level.
• Public policies promote the use of Recommended
  Practices.
• Program policies and administration promote
  family participation indecision-making.
• Program policies and administration promote the
  use of Recommended Practices.

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Practices related to Policies, Procedures
Systems Change

• Families and professionals shape policy at the
  national, state, and local level.
• Public policies promote the use of Recommended
  Practices.
• Program policies and administration promote
  family participation in decision-making.
• Program policies and administration promote the
  use of Recommended Practices.

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Policy Practice Example

• Program Policies and Administration
• PS12. When creating program policies and
  procedures, strategies are employed to capture
  family and community voices and to support the
  active and meaningful participation of families
  and community groups, including those who are
  traditionally under-represented.

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What does PS12 look like?

• Periodic family and community forums and surveys
  are conducted to obtain input on program policies
  and procedures, share information, and to collect
  satisfaction data.
• Programs establish policy teams that are
  comprised of administrators, direct service
  staff, community providers, and family members.
  All policies are developed/revised by these teams
  based on data collected through evaluation
  procedures.

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Family-Based Practices Take Home Messages

• Family members and professionals jointly develop
  appropriate family-identified outcomes.
• Practices strengthen family functioning.
• Practices are individualized and flexible.
• Practices are strengths- and assets-based.

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Family-Based Practices Take Home Messages

• Family members and professionals jointly develop
  appropriate family-identified outcomes.
• Practices strengthen family functioning.
• Practices are individualized and flexible.
• Practices are strengths- and assets-based.

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Think/Pair/Share

• F5. Family/Professionals/ relationship building
  is accomplished in ways that are responsive to
  cultural, language, and other family
  characteristics.
• With a partner, identify up to 5 examples of what
  this will look like in practice.

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Child-Focused Practices Take Home Messages

• Adults design environments to promote childrens
  safety, active engagement, learning,
  participation, and membership.
• Adults use ongoing data to individualize and
  adapt practices to meet each childs changing
  needs.
• Adults use systematic procedures within and
  across environments, activities, and routines to
  promote childrens learning and participation.

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Child-Focused Practices Take Home Messages

• Adults design environments to promote childrens
  safety, active engagement, learning,
  participation, and membership.
• Adults use ongoing data to individualize and
  adapt practices to meet each childs changing
  needs.
• Adults use systematic procedures within and
  across environments, activities, and routines to
  promote childrens learning and participation.

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Child-Focused Practice Example

• Design Environment
• C4. Play routines are structured to promote
  interaction, communication, and learning by
  defining roles for dramatic play, prompting
  engagement, prompting group friendship
  activities, and using specialized prompts.

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What does C4 look like?

• Adults join children in their play to keep
  children playing

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What else does C4 look like?

• Use the childs preferences to increase
  engagement in a particular activity

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What else does C4 look like?

• a teacher uses a childs preference for trains
  by turning the dramatic play area into a train
  station. The child now interacts with peers to
  purchase train tickets, to take turns blowing
  the train whistle and turning on the train, and
  to help build a pretend train station

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Dramatic Play
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Free Choice Sharing
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Circle TimeWhen Its Not Working
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Next Steps Practitioners

• Know what the evidence says
• Base your work on the evidence we have
• Sometimes you have to build the evidence
• Its called innovation!

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Next Steps Parents

• Research does matter!
• Demand that the services provided to your child
  and your family have the power of the entire
  field.

Gently
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Next Steps Researchers

• Build the evidence
• Continue to ask the questions
• Stir up controversy

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Next Steps Administrators

• Know the practices
• and practice them!
• Focus the resources on practices that work
• Monitor, measure, and account for quality

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Next Steps DEC

• Continue to develop practical tools to ensure
  that Recommended Practices is widely used and
  understood.
• Challenge practitioners, policy makers,
  administrators, family members, and researchers
  to continue to develop the practices.
• Engage the field in ongoing dialogue and
  discussion about program improvement and high
  quality services.

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DEC Recommended Practices series
The Division for Early Childhood of the Council
for Exceptional Children
www.dec-sped.org
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DEC Monograph Series
New!
The Division for Early Childhood of the Council
for Exceptional Children
www.dec-sped.org
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Stay in Touch!
www.dec-sped.org
Susan Sandall ssandall_at_u.washington.edu
Beth Rous brous_at_uky.edu
Sarah A. Mulligan sarah.mulligan_at_dec-sped.org
Special thanks to www.csefel.uiuc.edu for the
video clips!
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The End!