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tices” (Snyder & Ayankoya, 2015, p. 14). A DEC recom- by practitioners to produce desired child, family, or prac-
mended practices commission made up of DEC mem- titioner outcomes (Dunst, 2015, 2017a). Performance
bers was given responsibility for accomplishing this task checklists include sets of behavior indicators, active in-
in collaboration with recommended practices topic area gredients, key characteristics, or core components that,
workgroup leaders and commission liaisons (Division taken together, operationally define a particular kind of
for Early Childhood, 2015b). assessment or intervention practice and the intended ben-
The 2014 DEC recommended practices are orga- efit or outcome of the practice (Dunst, 2017a). Evidence-
nized into seven child, family, and practitioner assess- based or evidence-informed performance checklists in-
ment and intervention topic areas. (An eighth topic area, clude practice indicators where research findings indicate
leadership, includes practices not constituting the focus there is a functional or statistical relationship between the
of this chapter or the other chapters in the monograph.) practice indicators and the intended outcomes of a prac-
The seven topic areas are assessment, environment, fam- tice (Dunst, 2017b; Chapter 3). Practice-based research
ily, instruction, interaction, teaming and collaboration, evidence is most desirable for informing checklist indica-
and transition practices. Each topic area has (a) a pre- tor selection or development because practice-based evi-
amble that includes a description of the purpose or intent dence highlights which active ingredients, key character-
of the topic area practices and the intended outcomes of istics, or core components prove most important in terms
the practices and (b) a list of recommended practices for of observed benefits or outcomes (Dunst, 2016).
each topic area. Performance checklists designed to promote under-
The seven topic areas include 52 practices broadly standing and use of a particular practice adhere to certain
construed. The term broadly construed reflects the fact design features. First, checklists should “clearly set out
that many of the practices within and between topic areas the minimum necessary steps in a process…to establish
differ considerably in terms of their scope and specificity a higher standard of [desired] performance” (Gawa-
and, in many cases, are not practices but statements about nde, 2009, p. 39, emphasis added). In the classic article
practices. This is problematic because the ability to use The Magical Number Seven Plus or Minus Two, Miller
a practice as intended is dependent on how well the core (1956) noted that the working memory of most adults
components, active ingredients, or key characteristics of ranges between 5 and 9 bits of information. Second, in-
a practice are “spelled out” and are understandable to formation that is organized (chunked) around a common
end-users (e.g., Dunst, 2011; Dunst & Trivette, 2009). theme (such as checklist indicators for a particular type
The number of practices for each topic area range of practice ) is easier to remember than information that
between 2 (transitions) and 13 (instruction). Figure 1-2 has weak associations (Mathy & Feldman, 2012). Third,
shows the number of practices for each topic area. Four information written in identical or similar formats is
topic areas include only a small number of practices easier to learn and remember (Kintsch, 1994, 1998). As
(transitions, teaming and collaboration, interaction, and noted by Schwartz (2014), similarly formatted material
environment), whereas the other three topic areas in- used as part of everyday, real-world application serves
clude 2 or 3 times as many practices (family, assessment,
and instruction). One of the parameters for informing the 14
development of the 2014 DEC recommended practices 12
was that the “practices should be written so they are ob-
servable and clearly describe the actions or behaviors 10
of practitioners” (Snyder & Ayankoya, 2015, p. 17, em- 8
phasis added). Many of the practices, however, are not NUMBER OF PRACTICES
stated in terms of specific actions or behaviors, but rather 6
are global statements or general descriptions of different 4
kinds of practices. As a result, they do not include opera-
tionally stated actions, behaviors, or indicators (Babbie, 2
2009; Dunst, 2017a).
0
3. Process for Developing Early
Childhood Intervention Performance
Checklists
TOPIC AREAS
he author proposed the use of the 2014 DEC practices Figure 1-2. Number of 2014 DEC recommended
Tas the source of practice indicators to inform the de- practices for each early childhood intervention top-
velopment of performance checklists that could be used ic area.

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