Self-Efficacy in Parents and Graduate Clinicians in the Greeley Treasure Chest Program for Coaching Early Childhood Intervention Strategies

Responsive interactions with parents during daily activities and routines are critical in the facilitation of learning and development for infants and toddlers (Moore, Barton, & Chironis, 2014). The purpose of this study was to determine whether self-efficacy for graduate clinicians and parents of children who were involved in the Greeley Treasure Chest Program would improve following a semester of parent coaching in early childhood intervention strategies. Participants included a total of 33 parents and 45 children who participated in the Greeley Treasure Chest program in 2019 and 20 graduate clinicians in Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Northern Colorado. The Self-Efficacy for Parenting Tasks Index- Toddler Scale (Coleman & Karraker, 2003) was used to measure parent outcomes pre and post-intervention and a self-efficacy survey was adapted for the graduate clinicians. The results show that there was a significant improvement for clinician confidence in coaching parents of young children with early intervention activities (p \u3c .001) and confidence in the knowledge of typical language/motor development of children birth-preschool (p = 0.42). The results show that parent self-efficacy significantly;y improved for ability to establish a daily routine with their child (p = 0.29), ability to provide a comfortable amount of daily structure (p = .009), ability to establish a regular bedtime routine with their child (p = .009), and confidence utilizing play strategies to improve their child’s language and behavior (p = .015). The results provide support for the use of the Treasure Chest program to improve parents’ confidence in implementing play strategies with their child. Additionally, results indicate that the opportunity to work with families in an early childhood program may help to improve graduate clinician confidence in their knowledge of early intervention strategies and coaching parents in their use of them