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Improving Systems, Practices, and Outcomes

Practice Improvement Tools: Using the DEC Recommended Practices

Based on the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) Recommended Practices, Our Practice Improvement Tools guide practitioners and families in implementing evidence-based practices that support young children who have or are at-risk for developmental delays or disabilities.

Logo: Division for Early Childhood (DEC) Recommended Practices

Your can browse the product index to download the tools as PDFs, or use the product categories below to read online. Each is available in English and Spanish.

Development and Purpose

ECTA Center was charged with assisting the DEC and DEC Commissioners to revise the DEC Recommended Practices, developing products that would promote their use, and providing intensive TA to assist states in implementing them.

Analysis of RPs into Subsets and Performance Checklists

The DEC Recommended Practices consist of 66 evidence-informed practices for early intervention and early childhood special education organized into eight topics.

We independently analyzed the content of the RPs in each topic, and identified subsets of practice indicators within each. Small groups reviewed these analyses, reaching consensus on 3–5 subsets for each topic.

Next, we identified the key characteristics of each subset of RPs, and used them to develop itemized practice descriptions. These became the basis for our Performance Checklists.

Checklist items address the RPs in one topic, but they also address others. For example, Family checklist items overlap with the Teaming and Collaboration and Assessment topics. This is consistent with evidence from research on early intervention and early childhood special education practice.

The checklists can be used as self-evaluation tools for practitioners and leaders to increase understanding and use of RPs, but they are not intended for monitoring practitioner performance.

Practice Guides for Families and Practitioners

We produced additional tools for two audiences—Practice Guides for Practitioners and Practice Guides for Families. These practice guides:

  • Explain practice importance.
  • Describe how to do a practice.
  • Illustrate the practice with short stories.
  • Include signs of success.

References

  • Dunst, C.J., Howse, R.B., Embler, D., & Hamby, D.W. (2018). Evaluation of e-learning lessons for strengthening early childhood practitioner use of family capacity-building practices. International Journal of Educational Technology and Learning, 4(1), 34–39. https://doi.org/10.20448/2003.41.34.39
  • Dunst, C.J., Hamby, D.W., Wilson, L.L., Espe-Sherwindt, M., & Nelson, D.E. (2017). Practitioner-informed improvements to early childhood intervention performance checklists and practice guides. Research and Evaluation in Education, 3(1), 12–27. http://doi.org/10.21831/reid.v3i1.14158
  • Dunst, C.J. & Hamby, D.W. (2017). Predictors of the social validity judgments of early childhood intervention performance checklists and practice guides. International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies, 4(1), 13–20. https://doi.org/10.17220/ijpes.2017.01.002
  • Dunst, C.J. (2017). Parents' social validity appraisals of early childhood intervention practice guides. Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology, 7(2), 51–58. https://doi.org/10.5539/jedp.v7n2p51
  • Dunst, C.J. (2017). Research foundations for evidence-informed early childhood intervention performance checklists. Education Sciences, 7(4), 78. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/educsci7040078

Types

Topics