Examining Caregivers’ Independence in Early Intervention Home Visit Sessions

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how a delineated coaching process affected the ability of caregivers to take the lead in promoting their children’s learning in the context of daily activities. In addition, the correspondence between caregivers’ initiations during the intervention and their rate of improvement after the intervention was investigated. One provider coached three culturally diverse caregivers to use development-enhancing strategies with their children who evidenced moderate–severe disabilities. The coaching process designated by the acronym SOOPR, include targeted information sharing (S), observation and provision of opportunities for the caregiver to practice new skills with provider feedback (OO), problem solving and reflection (P), and review of the session (R). Results reveal that all three caregivers increased their initiations of three of four development-promoting behaviors: teaching, responsiveness, and encouragement. The descriptive data across sessions for each triad suggest that as the intervention progressed, the frequency of specific coaching strategies decreased which may have fostered the caregivers’ opportunities to take the lead in the sessions. In addition, a consistent pattern of direct proportionality between caregiver rate of improvement after the intervention and caregiver initiations during the intervention was identified. Study limitations and implications for research and practice are discussed.