Expanding the Infant Achievements Intervention Through Community Partnerships

Centering Community Partnerships to Facilitate Scaling Up of Infant Achievements for Community Implementation

The goal of the research study is to increase teachers' implementation of evidence-based practices in Early Head Start classrooms through the delivery of a professional development (PD) training intervention. The main questions that the study aims to answer are:

1. Does teacher participation in a PD intervention improve the use of evidence-based practices from pre- to posttest?
2. To what extent is the PD intervention feasible to implement in an established child care program?
3. To what extent is the PD program acceptable to teachers?

Participants will attend PD workshops and participate in content-related job-embedded coaching sessions during the implementation of the study.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Child Development; Developmental Delay; Infant Development; Language Development
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Building Capacity for Infant Achievements in Child Care

Detailed Description

The primary objective of the research study is to increase teachers' implementation of evidence-based practices in Early Head Start classrooms through the delivery of a professional development (PD) training intervention. It is hypothesized that teachers' fidelity to developmentally-appropriate practices, assessed through classroom observation measures, will increase following their participation in a comprehensive PD training intervention. The secondary hypotheses are that (1) the PD intervention is feasible to implement in an established child care program, and (2) the PD program is acceptable to teachers. Teacher participants will attend PD workshops, co-developed with community partners, and engage in follow-up job-embedded coaching sessions occurring weekly in their classrooms.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 10
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Maryland
    • Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 21211
      • Kennedy Krieger Institute

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Participants must currently work in an early childhood classroom serving children between 8-36 months of age.
• Participants must work in the role of a teacher or teacher assistant in an Early Head Start location.
• Participants must be willing to participate in two 60-90-minute trainings/workshops.
• Participants must be willing to participate in eight follow-up job-embedded coaching sessions

Exclusion Criteria:

• Works in a childcare setting outside of the Baltimore metro area
• Non-English speaking

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Teacher Professional Development Workshop and Coaching; Teachers will participate in a professional development workshop session (approximately 2 hours in duration) followed by 8 weekly coaching sessions (approximately 45-60 minutes in duration). The study team (trained coaches) will utilize the Practice-Based Coaching model (Snyder et al., 2015) to support teachers' use of developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood classrooms. Teachers will be coached to implement strategies that foster responsive and nurturing relationships with young children.

Behavioral: Building Capacity for Infant Achievements in Child Care; All teacher participants will be assigned to the professional development intervention consisting of an interactive workshop and weekly coaching sessions.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Classroom Quality (as assessed by scores on the TPITOS)	Classroom quality will be measured by total scores (ranging from 0-100%) on the Teaching Pyramid Model Infant-Toddler Observation Scale (TPITOS) which assesses the extent to which an early childhood program's staff is fostering responsive, nurturing relationships with young children and promoting strong social-emotional development.	Change from baseline/pretest up to posttest, up to 16 weeks.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Hugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger, Inc.
• Collaborators: Johns Hopkins University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Rebecca Landa, PhD, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Johns Hopkins University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 1, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 1, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): February 15, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 4, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 9, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): March 15, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): September 23, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 17, 2025
• Last Verified: September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Mentoring; Inservice Training; Teacher Training
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Neurologic Manifestations; Nervous System Diseases; Mental Disorders; Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Communication Disorders; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Signs and Symptoms; Learning Disabilities; Organization and Administration; Health Services Administration; Public Health; Environment and Public Health; Health Services; Health Care Facilities Workforce and Services; Environment; Public Health Practice; Communicable Disease Control; Pandemic Preparedness; Disaster Planning; Disasters; Capacity Building; Child Care
• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB00408654

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No