Social and Emotional Intervention Research as Justice: A Case for Accountability

Abstract

The field of Special Education is recognized for conducting research designed to improve the quality of life for the children and families we serve. However, our field has been criticized for empirical approaches that are inconsistent with the values and beliefs we articulate as central to our scientific practice. As such, a shift in our research endeavors is warranted. Given the specific calls within early childhood special education for research programs that consider the marginalized experiences of children and families, we posit five guidelines to reframe social and emotional intervention research in early childhood special education as justice-oriented. These guidelines are (a) understand the historical and immediate context of research participants; (b) incorporate best practices in social and emotional assessment to reduce bias; (c) center children’s and families’ voices in social validity measures; (d) address confounding variables to fidelity of implementation; and (e) examine diversity in research team composition.

Noncompliance Interventions for Young Children: A Best Evidence Synthesis and Meta-Analysis

“…This may include obtaining participant assent (i.e., “Would you like to work with me today?”; Beaulieu et al, 2012) or providing choice of procedures or materials (Zimmerman et al, 2020). These data could be used to minimize risk (BACB, 2020), inform the adaptation of goals or procedures, and ensure that children’s voices are centered and valued (BACB, 2020; Wahman et al, 2023) as direct consumers of NC interventions.…”

“…While lack of social validity data is a known issue in SCDs (Snodgrass et al, 2018), it is especially problematic for NC interventions in early childhood contexts. First, social validity data may encourage acceptability (Wahman et al, 2023) and necessary ethical improvements (Malone & Zimmerman, 2023) of NC assessments and interventions by including stakeholder and/or masked-rater feedback. It is plausible that social validity data gathered from stakeholders were scarcely present because interventions were rarely conducted by endogenous implementers in typical environments, which is problematic due to the safety concern of overgeneralization of compliance (Kim, 2010).…”

Meeting the Need: Proposed Early Childhood Special Education Intensive Intervention Competencies for Preservice Preparation

“…Considerations of leveraging existing frameworks to prepare these experts align with recent calls to action to (a) reframe ways of training ECSE PSTs through blended programming (Mickel-son et al, 2022); (b) create early learning standards to include children with disabilities (Bruder & Ferreira, 2021); and (c) conceptualize educating young children with disabilities in inclusive environments as a form of justice and equity (Pugach et al, 2020;Wahman et al, 2023). There is a fundamental need for a high-quality workforce that integrates equitable, intensive, individualized data-based intervention incorporating culturally and linguistically responsive evidence-based practices (Gunn et al, 2017;, developmentally appropriate practices (DEC/NAEYC, 2009), and data-based intervention to improve outcomes for young children (Carta, 2019).…”

“…This competen-cy remains close to the original NCII taxonomy; rather than focusing solely on executive functioning and self-regulation, we concentrate on social-emotional competence and communication skills. Access to high-quality social-emotional intervention centered on children's cultural, linguistic, and racial identities is a critical form of justice in early childhood contexts (Wahman et al, 2023). Further, young children's behavioral performance is critically linked to their communication and language skills (Chow et al, 2020), thus necessitating behavioral support to address skills in tandem as they develop in young children: social-emotional competence, language, and communication skills and prosocial behaviors.…”