Using a Tiered Approach to Support Early Childhood Educators’ Use of Behavioral Strategies

Abstract

School-wide, multi-tiered systems of support are increasingly incorporating effective, low-intensity strategies (e.g., behavior-specific praise, choice, precorrection) into their Tier 1 (universal) practices. For some teachers, additional coaching may be needed to promote the use of these strategies. This study applied a tiered approach to supporting early childhood education educators’ use of behavioral strategies by providing email coaching with targeted examples, praise for strategy use, goal setting and visual performance feedback (Tier 2), and if needed, vibratory prompting in addition to Tier 2 supports (Tier 3). Results suggest a functional relation between the intervention and educators’ use of BSP and choice. One teacher required Tier 3 supports to reach goal-level implementation of BSP. Treatment fidelity and social validity data suggest the utility of this tiered approach. Limitations and future directions are discussed.