Evidence of a continuum in foundational expressive communication skills

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2013.02.006Get rights and content

Abstract

Progress monitoring measurement is increasingly needed in early childhood to inform practitioners when an intervention change is needed and as a tool for accomplishing individualization and improving results for individual children. The Early Communication Indicator (ECI) is such a measure for infants and toddlers 6–42 months of age. A greater understanding of the ECI key skills (i.e., gestures, vocalizations, single- and multiple-word utterances) could lead to further improvements in the sensitivity and utility of the decisions made compared to ECIs composite total communication score. Thus, we examined the pattern of growth within and between the ECI's four foundational skills in a large sample of children served in Early Head Start. Results confirmed a unique pattern of growth and change within each skill trajectory in terms of (a) age at skill onset and (b) peaks in each trajectory defining an inflection point or change from acceleration to deceleration. Using these inflection points as intercepts with before and after trajectory slopes, we tested the fit of an adjacent-skills temporally ordered growth model. Results indicated good fit. Implications of a continuum of foundational ECI skills to future validation and decision making utility of the measure are discussed.

Highlights

▸ Latent spline growth models described the complex pattern of growth and change within 4 key skills of the Early Communication Indicator. ▸ Examined were (a) age at onset of skill trajectories, and (b) peaks or inflection points in each skill defining acceleration and deceleration. ▸ A continuum of adjacent early communication skills was identified by the fit of these inflection points as intercepts and slopes in a predictive, cross-skills model of latent growth.

Section snippets

Participants

This investigation was a secondary analysis of data from a previously reported sample of children served in EHS. The two earlier reports focused on child-level ECI growth norms (Greenwood et al., 2010) and program-level influences on children's growth in ECI communication growth trajectories (Greenwood, Buzhardt, Walker, Howard, & Anderson, 2011). Participants were infants and toddlers recruited from EHS programs representing urban, suburban, and rural localities across two Midwestern states.

Question 1. What Dynamic Relations Existed Within Each Key Skill, and do these Relations Support and Inform the ECI's Conceptual Framework?

In the context of this study, the latent growth measurement model answered important questions about the pattern of individual differences among each of the key skill intercepts and slopes and was the basis for more elaborate testing to follow (Brown, 2006). The initial measurement model, consisting of intercepts and slopes set as previously described, fit the data reasonably well, χ2 (664) = 2135.681, p < .001, RMSEA = .031 (90% CI: 0.030, 0.033), TLI = .933, CFI = .942 (see Fig. 3). The model means,

Discussion

The purpose of this investigation was to strengthen the validity of the ECI through a detailed examination of growth and change in its four key skills in a large sample during the 6–36 month age span. We sought to improve our knowledge of the dynamic patterns of change occurring within and across ECI skills that in composite comprise the ECI total communication score. We also sought evidence of temporal ordering among adjacent skills or a continuum of growth in communication proficiency that

Limitations

The dataset analyzed in this report were both cross-sectional and longitudinal in nature with missing data due to the quarterly assessment protocol linked to each child's birthdate, the start and exit of individual children from the program, and attrition. Interpreting developmental trajectories from data that are not entirely longitudinal data involves some caution in that cross-sectional data will not be fully representative of longitudinally collected data (Kraemer et al., 2000, Maxwell and

Implications for future research and practice

This study is important to the field because the development of progress monitoring measurement is a relatively new enterprise particularly for use with children younger than kindergarten (NAEYC, DEC, & NHSA, 2012) and the demand for it is increasing (Office of Head Start, 2012). In our opinion, these new ECI results provide an example to the field of the development, refinement, and use of such measures for universal screening and progress monitoring (Greenwood, Carta et al., 2011). This new

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of colleagues Judith J. Carta, Debra Montagna, Barbara Terry, Christine Muehe, Susan Higgins, Matt Garrett, and Chia-Fen Liu. We thank Todd Little and Wei Wu of the Kansas Center for Research Methods and Data Analysis for assistance with the growth curve modeling aspects of the study. We acknowledge our Kansas and Missouri Early Head Start program research partners, participating programs, children and families, and Mary Weathers for her support in

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    This work was supported by grants from the Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Special Education Research (R324A070085), and the Office of Special Education Programs (H324C040095 and H327A060051), U.S. Department of Education. Additional support was provided by the Kansas Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, National Institutes of Health (HD002528), Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies, Kansas Social Rehabilitation Services, and the regional Early Head Start Association.

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