Staff Training to Improve the Preschool Educational Environment for Children with Special Needs

Abstract Ensuring high-quality general and special education in preschools is crucial for the positive development of at-risk children and children with special needs. However, recent reports suggest inconsistencies in general education quality and challenges in implementing special education support and early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI). These results indicate that further training is needed to improve the quality of services for preschool children with special needs. The current study employed a delayed multiple probe design to evaluate a staff training program’s influence on the quality of general education, EIBI, and evocative situations in three inclusive preschool units. The intervention lasted 17 weeks, consisting of a 4-h post-baseline workshop and biweekly coaching with the entire staff group. The quality of the teaching and learning environment, measured by the Autism Program Environment Rating Scale (APERS-P-SE), improved in two preschools. We observed improvement in the quality of evocative situations with a large effect size, increased children’s response rate during lunch, improved EIBI quality, and good social validity. This indicates that using APERS-P-SE to establish objectives for inclusive practices and training the entire staff group with a focus on evocative situations may be one way to improve the implementation of EIBI and the quality of preschools’ teaching and learning environment.