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Early Interventionists’ Appraisals of Intervention Strategies for Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Peers in Inclusive Childcare Classrooms

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Abstract

Mounting evidence supports several naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBI) for toddlers and preschoolers within inclusive childcare centers and preschools. However, these interventions pose many barriers to community implementation. As part of a larger project to create an adapted NDBI for early educators in childcare centers, we surveyed 101 early interventionists who had worked with a toddler with autism within the last 12 months. Early interventionists rated 22-of-31 NDBI strategies to be significantly more effective for All Toddlers versus Toddlers with Autism. However, when comparing the top 10 rated strategies between groups, there was a large degree of overlap. Moreover, many of these highly rated NDBI strategies are consistent with best practice accreditation and early education standards within the United States.

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Funding

This research project was funded by an Autism Speaks Dennis Weatherstone Predoctoral Fellowship (#9117). In addition, Melissa Maye was supported by a National Institute of Health Training Fellowship (T32 MH109433).

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All authors contributed to study conception and design. Dr. MM supervised data collection conducted a majority of the statistical analyses and drafted the initial manuscript. VS led data collection, conducted some of the statistical analyses, and provided feedback on drafts. Dr. ASM provided substantive feedback on manuscript drafts. Dr. ASC supervised the statistical analyses and provided substantive feedback on manuscript drafts.

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Correspondence to Melissa Maye.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

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This research study was approved by our institutional IRB and informed consent was obtained for all participants.

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Maye, M., Sanchez, V.E., Stone-MacDonald, A. et al. Early Interventionists’ Appraisals of Intervention Strategies for Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Peers in Inclusive Childcare Classrooms. J Autism Dev Disord 50, 4199–4208 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04456-w

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