Teacher Coaching Intervention

Child and teacher outcomes from the teacher coaching intervention are reported in detail in Tupou et al. (2020). Overall, results indicate that all three teachers improved in their use of the ESDM strategies. In terms of child outcomes, all children demonstrated improvements in active participation but results for communication and imitation were mixed.

Teacher Experience and PerceptionsQuantitative Questionnaire

TARF-R results for the three teachers, Kelly, Helen, and Bear, are displayed in Table 3. Results suggest that, overall, teachers rated the ESDM intervention as highly acceptable (M = 103.7; maximum score = 119). Teachers also rated the intervention as highly effective (M = 18.3; maximum score = 19). Helen’s ratings for willingness, affordability, and side effects were lower than Kelly’s and Bear’s ratings for the same subscales; as a result, Helen’s total acceptability score (95; maximum score = 119) was the lowest of the three teachers. However, Helen’s score was still well above the midpoint and thus indicates that Helen found the intervention to be acceptable. The subscales that received the lowest overall ratings were side effects and disruption/time. This may indicate that teachers found the intervention to be somewhat disruptive and somewhat likely to lead to undesirable side effects.

Interviews

Eight major themes were constructed from the interview data; these were the following: (a) the importance of time and practice; (b) the relation between knowledge, understanding, frustration, and patience; (c) the relationship between teacher and coach; (d) understanding and using the different strategies; (e) child outcomes were the most important indicator of intervention success; (f) the impact of the intervention was wider than just one teacher and one child; (g) child relationships and sense of belonging; and (h) complications associated with using the intervention in a preschool environment. Themes (a) to (d) pertain to the second research question, themes (e) to (g) pertain to the third research question, and theme (h) pertains to the fourth research question.

Teacher Experiences with the Intervention The Importance of Time and Practice

Time was an important influence on teachers’ experience of the coaching program. This was highlighted by Kelly who, due to an administrative error, did not receive the 1 h per week of release time that the other teachers received for the coaching. Kelly spoke about the pressure of “juggling too much” and being unable to complete the weekly self-review checklists due to time constraints. She also described the feeling of failure she experienced as a result.

I thought it was good being able to set a goal for something to work on, but to be honest with you I didn’t ever really get time to go through and evaluate myself… I kind of felt like I’d failed a bit in not being able to.

Kelly went on to suggest that “if I had that release time, I think it would have been fine.” However, Helen, who did receive release time, also described time constraints as a barrier to her engagement with the coaching program.

All teachers indicated that they would have liked more time to learn and practice using the ESDM strategies. Helen suggested that teachers who had more years of teaching experience may require more time and practice because they would have to “think about, reflect and change their practice quite considerably.” Bear suggested that it would have been better to have more than one coaching session per week, while Helen indicated that it would have been useful to have “a longer period of time” between each of the topics. Time was also described as a barrier to using the ESDM strategies with the children and all teachers indicated a desire for more time to work one-on-one with participating children.

The teachers also suggested that while the content of the coaching program was relatively simple to learn, they needed practice to perfect and fine-tune their use of the ESDM strategies. They found that the hands-on practice portion of the coaching program was the most valuable, as typified by the following quote:

That was a real key for me around my own learning it was actually just implementing it at the time and you giving me that kind of, that verbal support as I went through and modelling or suggesting “actually give it a try this way or…” (Kelly)

Bear explained that hands-on practice helped to solidify her understanding of the written coaching materials and that without the practical component, the coaching would be “just words on paper and stuff in your head.” All teachers indicated that more hands-on practice time would have been beneficial. Bear and Kelly also commented on how they found it useful when the coach modeled new strategies during practice sessions.

Helen suggested that completing the training alongside other teachers from the same preschool would have provided more opportunity for practice and feedback from others who would be “on the same page” with their understanding of ESDM. Teachers also indicated that it would have been useful to have their own copies of the video observations (taken during the research project) to reflect on in their own time, rather than just during the coaching sessions.

Time and practice were also important to the children’s learning, which the teachers described using phrases such as “over time,” “little by little,” and “slow.” The significance of time in relation to children’s development and readiness to learn was described by Kelly who found that it was important to revisit strategies with Ricky because strategies that were “not successful” during the early stages of the intervention were later successful. Kelly suggested that this was because the early strategies (e.g., gaining attention, building a fun, responsive relationship, and learning to take turns) “supported other learning” and helped Ricky to “learn to learn.” Teachers also commented on the progress that they observed in children because of regular practice and the lack of progress in skills that were not practiced as often. For example, Bear explained that Anaru did not show progress in learning to “high-5.” She suggested that progress was slow because “it’s something that we have to actually practice lots.” Practice was also described as important to the maintenance of improvements in child behavior/skills:

There wasn’t anywhere where we saw no improvement really, apart from when he was away and just the fact that we couldn’t consistently keep doing it…it made me realize that it’s not one of those things you can just do once or a few times and then put it in a box for two months and then come back to it and expect them to be right where they were. (Helen)

The Relation Between Knowledge, Understanding, and Frustration

The teachers reported gaining new knowledge through their participation in the coaching program. For example, Helen explained that the coaching had provided her with a “new way of thinking” as many of the strategies were things that she would have “never in a million years thought of doing.” Helen also explained that the new knowledge “doesn’t undo what you’ve learnt in your (teacher) training,” instead it “adds to your repertoire.” Indeed, all the teachers talked about storing the new knowledge that they gained in their “teaching kete (Māori bag/basket)” alongside their existing professional knowledge.

The intervention was also associated with an increase in understanding for teachers. Teachers discussed improvements in three different areas of understanding: (a) their understanding of ASD, (b) their understanding of the ESDM strategies, and (c) their understanding of the child they were working with. For example, Kelly reflected on improvements in her understanding of challenges that are commonly faced by children with ASD. She went on to say that this has helped her to recognize when she might need to make a referral for an ASD assessment for children at the preschool. Teachers also spoke about their increased understanding of the ESDM strategies and the impact that this had on their teaching practice:

I understand more and I’m more confident working with children with ASD. So yeah, I just find that if I see something happening, I know how to respond more confidently. (Bear)

Teachers also described the impact of the intervention on their understanding of the target children. For example, Helen reflected on how she “got better at reading Tama’s cues” and Bear shared how she felt more “attuned” to Anaru’s “moods and behaviors” and understood how to “recognize the signs of over-stimulation and under-stimulation” and “know the times when he’s ready to move on to a new activity.”

There was a clear relation between understanding and frustration for the teachers. Bear described the feelings of frustration that she felt due to a lack of understanding before the intervention and how she became more patient with Anaru once she could “understand more about strategies to use with him” and could “patiently use them without wondering what’s going on.” Similarly, Kelly described an increase in her tolerance when working with Ricky:

I think I’ve got more tolerance because I kind of understand it more and I understand ways to support him more instead of feeling that overwhelming frustration and overwhelming sense of “what do I do? I do not know how to support you.”

The Relationship Between Teacher and Coach

Teachers indicated that their experience with the coaching program was influenced by their relationship with the coach.

Bear described how she felt supported and confident in the process because she knew that “if I did get stuck on something, I knew you (the coach) could help me with it.” Kelly shared how having an open and honest relationship helped her to build confidence:

We could just kind of freely and honestly talk and nothing was ever not ok, you know.

I could say “hey I really struggled with it this week” and you know, you (the coach) were good with that.

Teachers also expressed the importance of having a coach who was “willing to be flexible” and work around the demands of a busy preschool. Helen commented that the flexibility of the coach was “really beneficial because you know in this environment it’s really difficult, you’re not going to go very far if you’ve got a very rigid timetable and everything is really prescribed.”

Understanding and Using the Different Strategies

Teachers reported finding all strategies useful but described some strategies as feeling “more natural” than others. Interestingly, the strategies that teachers reported as natural or easy to use were also the ones that they described as useful or effective. For example, teachers found it felt natural to add pauses to songs and people games to encourage communication. They also found this strategy to be one of the most effective:

When he was on the swing and then I’d push him and then I’d either grab on hold of the swing or grab his legs and then stop and you know and like all communication would stop, all movement would stop and he’d give either eye contact or a sound to indicate “hey I want some more of this, you know, I’m really enjoying this,” that worked really well. (Kelly)

Other strategies that teachers described as “fitting naturally” into their teaching practice included positioning themselves face-to-face with the child, providing choices, holding objects up near their faces, and observing and responding to the child’s cues and communicative attempts.

Some strategies did not seem to fit naturally into the teachers’ existing teaching practice. Teachers all described the behavioral teaching techniques (e.g., using clear cues, prompting to elicit behavior) as “challenging.” Bear explained that for her, the techniques were “something I have to think about quite hard” and “I would have to really work on to get more right and to get into my head.” She suggested that it would have been helpful to have a simplified handout with “lots of practical examples” to explain the strategies because she found the handout that was used in the coaching program “really hard to follow.” Kelly found it easy to understand the behavioral teaching techniques but found it challenging to use them:

You’re trying to think of a, b, c, d and e, and then I kind of like, I would be “damn I forgot C” or you know…it was a hell of a lot to remember.

Kelly also commented that she did not get the same level of success with the behavioral techniques as she was able to achieve when using the more natural strategies. She referred specifically to the techniques for dealing with unwanted behavior, explaining that she felt that “trying to use some of those strategies to redirect him, they may work one day but then they don’t work the next time.” She felt the techniques were still useful, as she had success using them with other children, but indicated that it would have been valuable to have some alternative strategies to use with Ricky. Helen also found it difficult to prompt for replacement behaviors when dealing with Tama’s challenging behavior:

You’d see something unfolding before your eyes and by the time he (Tama) had you know hit out at a child or broken something, you had like a second and so it was too late by then...and you know you can do the prompt after, but it kind of almost didn’t feel relevant to do it after-the-fact.

Teacher Perceptions Regarding the Impact of the Intervention Child Outcomes Were the Most Important Indicator of Intervention Success

Teachers viewed child outcomes as a key indicator of the success of the intervention. When speaking about child progress, they consistently used phrases such as “it’s so cool,” “I’m amazed,” and “it’s very exciting.” Teachers also commented on child outcomes in relation to their goals for the child at the beginning of the intervention. For all teachers, these goals centered around the child’s participation in the preschool program and their relationships with others. All teachers indicated that they felt the intervention had been successful in supporting them to achieve these goals:

What I wanted to achieve out of it (the intervention) was to be able to support him (Tama) to you know, be immersed more in the program and to develop interactions with kind of the wider preschool, not just specific teachers. And that happened so we kind of met the goal of what I was hoping to get out of it. (Helen)

Teachers also described improvements in the children’s communication as a result of the intervention. Bear described how Anaru’s receptive communication improved during the intervention, commenting on how he now “turns around to look at you” when his name is called. Helen observed an improvement in Tama’s verbal communication, noting that after the intervention Tama became “really good at telling you when he didn’t like something.” She also commented on how Tama learned to participate in “back and forth” communication with her during the intervention. Kelly noted improvements in Ricky’s ability to follow simple instructions and his non-verbal communication skills. She also commented that by the end of the intervention, Ricky had begun to “make speech sounds” and “say some words.”

Bear and Kelly also viewed the intervention as successful in addressing specific challenging behaviors displayed by the children they were teaching. Bear described how, prior to the intervention, Anaru would take food from other children’s lunchboxes and would frequently remove his trousers and then refuse to put them back on, even in very cold weather. She also described how this behavior had improved during the intervention and commented that “he’s gone from that (the unwanted behavior) to having several activities which he enjoys.” According to Kelly, prior to the intervention, Ricky spent a lot of time at preschool climbing on furniture or running around the inside of the preschool, tipping toys off shelves. She described how Ricky’s development of positive behaviors during the intervention contributed to a reduction in these unwanted behaviors:

We saw a huge positive change in his behavior once he could start to communicate and we actually kind of understood what he was trying to communicate.

Teachers also observed behaviors/skills where children showed minimal/no improvement. Bear commented on how Anaru had not shown any progress in pretend play skills and had not learned to share a “high-5” with a teacher or peer. She also noted that his progress in imitation had been only minimal. Helen explained that Tama’s progress with combining vocalizations with gestures had been only minimal and suggested that it would require “a lot more time and practice” for Tama to “really get it.” Kelly talked about challenges in getting Ricky to participate in activities that did not involve his favorite alphabet blocks. However, she noted that she had observed some progress in this towards the end of the intervention.

Helen also observed that the intervention had a minor negative impact on Tama during the early stages when she was still learning to read Tama’s cues and respond to them sensitively:

I suppose when he (Tama) wasn’t in the mood it could kind of, I mean I got better at reading his cues over time and coming back to just sitting or just being next to him and stuff, but you know really momentarily little bits of kind of anxiety and stress because someone was kind of getting in his space.

However, she explained that she only observed this during the early stages of the intervention when she was “still learning what to do.”

The Impact of the Intervention Was Wider than Just One Teacher and One Child.

Helen, Kelly, and Bear were the only teachers from each of their preschools to participate in the coaching program. However, they all indicated that they shared the ESDM strategies and coaching materials with the other members of their teaching teams. On the other hand, Helen reported that her use of the intervention put extra pressure on the other teachers at her preschool. She explained that at times “another teacher would have to cover the whole floor because I was trying to work one-on-one with Tama.” Similarly, Kelly explained that the teaching team at her preschool faced “extra pressure” due to her participation in the coaching program.

The teachers reported that they were also able to use the ESDM strategies with other children, with and without ASD, at their preschools. Kelly commented that with children who were at risk or waiting for a diagnosis of ASD, she and the other teachers now had the knowledge and confidence to “just start implementing these strategies.” Bear indicated that she was finding the strategies useful for all children at the preschool, including those with ASD. Helen commented that her teaching team found the strategies were also useful with children with “developmental or sensory difficulties.”

Child Relationships and Sense of Belonging

This theme covers the importance of relationships and the impact of the intervention on different relationships. It is made up of two sub-themes: (a) the relationship between the teacher and the child, and (b) the relationships with others and sense of belonging.

The Relationship Between the Teacher and the Child

When asked what the most rewarding part of the intervention was, Helen replied:

I think it was just you know having those really nice interactions where you could tell he was really engaged and just the like the smiles and the laughter and you know you’d start something with him and he would carry it on, that was him interacting with you rather than you trying to force yourself on him.

This sentiment was also reflected in comments from Kelly and Bear. Kelly suggested that before the intervention Ricky “probably saw me as the grumpy teacher” but now “I’ve become the fun teacher.” She also described how building predictable activity routines with Ricky had led to a more reciprocal, interactive relationship between herself and Ricky, commenting that “he (Ricky) really is engaged in what’s happening between the two of us.”

Bear shared how she had become Anaru’s “go-to” teacher and that other teachers often sought her out when Anaru became distressed. She also discussed the challenges that this brought, such as being called to help Anaru during her allocated time in the office.

Relationships with Others and Sense of Belonging

Teachers also reported that the children developed stronger relationships with other teachers and peers as a result of the intervention. Kelly shared that:

He (Ricky) is huge on relationships now. So Kim, the teacher support, she arrived late one day and he obviously noticed her coming in the gate he just ran up to her and gave her the biggest hug… those relationships have actually become really strong.

Bear noticed Anaru “seeking out other people to be with” and “watching what the other children are doing.” She also spoke about the relationships that Anaru had developed with other teachers. Helen also noticed positive changes in Tama’s relationships with other teachers and peers.

Strongly linked to the idea of relationships was the concept of belonging. Bear spoke of how Anaru had become “part of the whole gang” at preschool. Kelly talked about how Ricky was beginning to notice the teachers and seemed to “really know which one is which now.” She also shared that he had started to participate in a wider range of activities at the preschool. Helen commented:

Towards the end (of the intervention) he (Tama) was starting to show naturally that he wanted to be part of what others were doing and that was really amazing to see because there had never been anything like that before.

She went on to explain that this was challenging to begin with because some of the children “were a bit nervous of him (Tama) coming because you know the only other interaction they had ever had with him was when he whacked them because they were in his space.”

However, once they saw that “he was actually trying to do what they were doing” they “were fine.”

Challenges Complications Associated with Using the Intervention in a Preschool Environment

Another theme that was evident in teachers’ interview responses related to complications associated with using the intervention in a busy preschool environment. For example, Kelly described challenges associated with the physical layout and free-play nature of the preschool. Specifically, she described how there were always a lot of activities out and available so when she offered Ricky choices of activities that did not involve the alphabet, he would “just kind of zone out and head off for something he wanted to do.” This made it difficult to support Ricky in participating in a range of different activities.

Helen noted that the high teacher–child ratio made it difficult for her to have the opportunity to work one-on-one with Tama; she suggested that a ratio of 1–5 would be ideal for implementing the intervention. She went on to explain that because of the high ratios, her interactions with Tama were often “in the moment,” so she did not usually have the opportunity to mentally plan and prepare for them. Also, as discussed in the “learning and using different strategies” theme, Helen found it hard to “get to Tama in time” to prompt for replacement behaviors. She explained that this was especially challenging on days when there were “40 kids and everybody’s inside because it’s raining.” The teachers also talked about the challenge of having to deal with the needs of multiple children at once together with other teaching-related tasks. Helen commented that “other things going on at the preschool sometimes superseded” their use of the ESDM strategies.

Helen and Bear also indicated that having many “children with diverse needs” at their preschools made it challenging for them to spend time using the intervention. Teachers also talked about the challenge they faced when other children wanted to join in but the child they were working with did not want them to:

Quite often there were children really interested in what was happening and you know sometimes it would work but then others that maybe wanted to get right in there when he (Tama) didn’t want to have a bar of it, that would prove kind of challenging because it kind of stopped what you were doing. (Helen)

Helen suggested that “in an ideal world” she would like to have access to a space where “you can shut the door and there’s resources in there that the child can explore one on one with you.” She suggested that it would be valuable to spend some time each day using the ESDM strategies with the child in this sort of space, then spending the rest of the day in the normal preschool environment.