Parent-implemented interventions (PIIs) hold promise for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families. Yet, reports of parent and family perceptions regarding PIIs are limited. The present study’s purpose was to gain parent perceptions regarding the helpful and challenging intervention components and contextual factors in the implementation of one PII in their daily lives. Six interviews were conducted and analyzed using an exploratory qualitative approach. Findings included considerable parent satisfaction with intervention experiences, particularly related to the use of videos taken of themselves and their children during intervention sessions. Some parents voiced discouragement after watching video examples, and parents reported challenges finding time to implement the intervention. Parents valued the supportive relationship formed with their interventionist. Additional findings and implications for research and practice are discussed.
The importance of early science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning opportunities for all young children has become increasingly documented by research and recommended practices. In addition, high quality inclusive settings where all children can access and benefit from learning activities continues to demonstrate optimal outcomes for all children. This manuscript reports findings from a survey broadly disseminated related to early childhood practitioners’ and directors’ perceptions related to STEM and inclusion and explores what practices related to STEM and inclusion are currently being used by early childhood practitioners and directors. While the majority of respondents supported the importance of both STEM and inclusion, there were varied responses related to relevance for infants and toddlers and inconsistent reports of specific practices being used. The findings suggest the need to emphasize and provide professional development opportunities focused on STEM and inclusion for our early childhood workforce more explicitly. Additional implications for research and practice are discussed.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10643-023-01476-w.
Preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present with social-communication and play challenges and would benefit from interventions targeting these skills. One way to ensure this is by engaging parents in technological supports to learn about an intervention and increase home-school collaboration. Thus, a website could potentially address both needs. This study describes the initial developmental processes of one such website. Specifically, we describe how engaging parents as stakeholders in the website development enhanced its future usability and feasibility. Data were collected through focus groups, interviews, and surveys to obtain parent feedback about website usability and applicability and about the intervention. Survey data were descriptively analyzed. Focus group and interview data were analyzed using systematic qualitative analysis. Parents perceived the website to be useful in helping them target social-communication and play with their preschoolers with ASD and highlighted specific aspects of the website and intervention they perceived as effective. Child outcomes and parent fidelity to the intervention supported these perceived developmental gains. Findings suggest that engaging parents in developmental processes may help ensure usability and applicability of resources and interventions. Furthermore, findings support the use of technology to help parents learn to use an intervention with their preschoolers with ASD. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
M ei (teacher), Joyce (instructional assistant), and Lateasha (speech and language pathologist) are practitioners working in an inclusive preschool classroom. They have two children (Luke, age 4 and Delquan, age 5) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The practitioners are facing challenges engaging Luke and Delquan in play and social activities. Both children prefer to be alone most of the school day. Mei suggests they explore techniques to purposefully engage Luke and Delquan in social and play activities, to improve these skills. Like many in early education, Mei and the practitioners are seeking ways to include and actively engage all children with ASD in daily routines and activities. Preschool teachers and their administrators are not always adequately trained to work with children with ASD (Loiacono & Allen, 2008; Wilson & Landa, 2019), and have reported barriers to teaching children with ASD, such as challenges faced engaging children in classroom activities and instruction (Wilson & Landa, 2019). These findings suggest preschool teachers would benefit from strategies and resources to better engage all children in classroom activities. Social-communication (SC) and play skills are often challenging for children with ASD, and research
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