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as mnemonic devices for improving learning and perfor- terms of a list of practice indicators all stated in the same
mance (see also Kintsch, 1998). or similar ways for all performance checklists to facili-
A five-step process was used to develop early child- tate practitioner learning and mastery of the key charac-
hood intervention performance checklists for each DEC teristics of the practices (e.g., Crowder, 2015; Schwartz,
recommended practices topic area. The checklist indica- 2014). As noted by Schwartz (2014), preparing material
tors in turn were used to inform the development of prac- in the same or parallel formats facilitates learning, mem-
tice guides to illustrate practitioner and family member ory, recall, and performance.
use of the indicators. The process is shown in Table 1-1. The third step involved use of the checklist indi-
End-user (practitioners and family members) judgments cators to develop both family and practitioner practice
of the importance and acceptability of the products were guides to illustrate how the indicators could inform the
used to determine if the checklists and practice guides development of end-user friendly products to “bring-to-
were considered socially valid (Foster & Mash, 1999) life” the checklist practice indicators. The practice guides
and therefore, more likely to be adopted and used as were intended to be models for how checklist indicators
intervention tools for implementing intervention prac- could be used to inform the development of other prac-
tices with fidelity (Dunst, Raab, & Hamby, 2016; Strain, tice guides for other kinds of practices, and not intended
Barton, & Dunlap, 2012). Schmutz et al. (2014) used a to be exhaustive of the scope and breadth of practices
similar process for developing a clinical checklist where that could be developed using the checklist indicators.
research evidence was used to inform the selection of The practice guides, like the checklists, were all prepared
checklist indicators where feedback from practitioners in the same format to facilitate the use of the practice
was used to make improvements in the checklist prac- guides for intervention purposes (Schwartz, 2014). Re-
tices (see also Gawande, 2009). sults from studies of text and material preparation also
The first step was to content analyze the practices informed the preparation of the practice guides (e.g.,
in each DEC recommended practices topic area to iden- Kintsch, 1994, 1998; Lemarié, Lorch, & Péry-Woodley,
tify internally sets of practice indicators where each set 2012; Serra & Dunlosky, 2010).
of indicators operationally defined a particular type of The fourth step was obtaining practitioner feedback,
early childhood intervention practice. For example, the input, and suggestions on the performance checklists and
five interaction practices were content analyzed which practice guides, as well as family feedback, input, and
resulted in four sets of internally consistent sets of prac- suggestions on the family practice guides. Both practi-
tices where each set was used to develop a different per- tioners and parents were asked to make social validity
formance checklist for different outcomes (Dunst, 2015). judgments (Foster & Mash, 1999; Strain et al., 2012) of
The second step involved use of each set of prac- the materials in a series of field-tests where results from
tices to identify or develop practice indicators stated in each field-test were used to make improvements in both
terms of the key characteristics, active ingredients, core the checklists and practice guides (Step 5). Practitioner
components, and actions known to be associated with in- and family feedback and input was seen as necessary
tended child or family outcomes (Dunst, 2017a; Dunst, to ensure that the performance checklists and practice
Trivette, & Raab, 2015; Wilson, 2013). The DEC rec- guides were considered important early childhood inter-
ommended practices for each internally consistent set of vention practices and worth the time and effort to be used
actions or behaviors were each reformatted or restated in to improve outcomes of interest (Foster & Mash, 1999).

Table 1-1
Process for Developing and Evaluating the Performance Checklists and Practice Guides

Step Development Process
1 Content analyze the practices in each DEC recommended practices topic area to identify
internally consistent sets of practice indicators
2 Use the different sets of practice indicators to develop performance checklists of evidence-based
or evidence-informed practice characteristics
3 Use the checklist practice characteristics to develop family and practitioner practice guides to
provide practitioners and family members examples of checklist practices
4 Obtain early childhood practitioner feedback on the checklists and practice guides and parent
feedback on the family practice guides
5 Use practitioner and family feedback and suggestions to improve the performance checklists and
practice guides

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