Professional development including performance feedback to support home visitors' use of caregiver coaching strategies during home visits

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of the current study was first to evaluate the effects of a multicomponent professional development intervention that included two brief workshops plus a six week performance feedback package on the home visitors' use of specific caregiver coaching strategies and range routines utilized during home-based intervention. The second purpose was to examine the extent to which the home visitors' use of coaching practices related to changes in parent engagement, parental stress, parent self-efficacy, and child developmental progress. An additional secondary purpose was to examine the extent to which home visitors and caregivers reported the professional development and subsequent caregiver coaching to be: (1) acceptable, (2) feasible, and (3) effective in changing practice.Method: A multiple-baseline design across three home visitors and caregiver/child dyads was used to evaluate the effects of workshops plus a performance feedback package on home visitors' use of caregiver coaching strategies and range of routines. The functional relation between the intervention and the dependent variable of the home visitor's use of caregiver coaching strategies was analyzed based on visual inspection using guidelines established by Kratochwill, Hitchcook, Horner, Levin, Odom, Rindskopf, and Shadish, (2010). Results: Findings provide support for the use of individualized performance feedback targeting home visitors' use of caregiver coaching strategies as well as support for the use of operationally defined caregiver coaching strategies. All participating home visitors and primary caregivers reported the professional development and subsequent coaching to be acceptable, feasible, and effective. Conclusions: The results of this study add to emerging data on the use of performance feedback to support teacher implementation of caregiver coaching strategies in the context of early intervention home visits.