PEACE for ImPACT Study

Investigators are partnering with the two early intervention systems and their respective agencies in Philadelphia that serve young children receiving early intervention services under the age of 5. Investigators will enroll 200 early intervention providers who deliver services to young children in Philadelphia. All providers will receive training on Project ImPACT. The investigators will also recruit 400 parent-child dyads from participating providers' caseloads and follow them over a 6 month period. Providers will be given access to the PEACE Implementation Toolkit to aid their implementation of Project ImPACT with enrolled families. At week 8, providers caregiver coaching fidelity with enrolled families will be assessed. Non-adherent providers will be randomized to either 1) continue using the PEACE Online Resources or 2) receive added support through 8 weeks of group facilitation with an EI consultant. The fidelity assessment will occur again at week 16 of the intervention. Non-adherent providers will be re-randomized to either 1) continue using the PEACE Online Resources, 2) receive 8 weeks of group facilitation with an EI consultant or 3) receive 8 weeks of individual facilitation with an EI consultant. At week 24 investigators will assess implementation fidelity for a final time. Secondary outcomes related to caregiver and child outcomes will be assessed at baseline and week 24. Planned analyses for all research questions can be found in the research study protocol available for review.

Completion of this project could radically transform the Philadelphia EI system's capacity to implement caregiver coaching with families of young children with ASD by providing critical supports to historically marginalized families, thereby improving learning trajectories for many young children with ASD. Data gathered through this project will be directly generalizable to EI systems across the country and inform the large-scale implementation of caregiver-mediated interventions for ASD within other publicly funded EI systems.

Inclusion criteria

• Provider is employed by a Philadelphia EI agency
• Provider has > 5 children with/at risk for ASD on their caseload.
• Child is receiving EI services from a participating provider.
• Child has a classification of ASD or high ASD risk as determined by the EI system.
• Child is not transitioning from EI services for at least 6 months.
• Caregiver speaks English or Spanish (Project ImPACT materials are available in Spanish).
• Caregiver is willing to participate in weekly coaching sessions.

Exclusion criteria

• Participants will be excluded if they do not speak English or Spanish, as the published intervention materials are currently available in English and Spanish and the research team is able to communicate with participants in English or Spanish only.