PRECI Conference – Gold Coast, QLD. May 2024

Dr Sarah Carlon and Dr Yuriko Kishida presented papers at the second Professionals and Researchers in Early Childhood Intervention (PRECI) national conference.

Dr Carlon’s presentation, Do advertised Australian early childhood intervention roles reflect best practice?, was based on a paper, written by the InSpEd Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) research Team, of which she was first author. She also co-presented a second presentation with her colleague Megan Cooper, an InSpEd certified Special Educator, titled Establishing and maintaining a collaborative coaching partnership to support inclusion in an early childhood education and care service.

Dr Kishida’s presentation, Promoting engagement and participation in daily activities through systematic observation of engagement, provided a summary of two research projects, led by Dr Kishida, that involved training inservice and preservice teachers to use the Individual Child Engagement Record-Revised (ICER-R), a measure of engagement and interaction, with children in early childhood and school settings. Information relating to this measure can be found at Child Engagement – a Measure of Learning Opportunity and Inclusive Practice.

Professionals and Researchers in Early Childhood Intervention (PRECI) is a not-for-profit organisation founded in June 2022 to achieve leading Australian early childhood intervention, knowledge translation, quality practice and policy for children with developmental disabilities.

InSpEd Expert Panel member, Dr Susana Gavidia-Payne is one of the inaugural PRECI board members. After holding their inaugural conference virtually in 2022, this conference offered the opportunity for a diverse group of individuals who are passionate about improving early childhood intervention and research-to-practice partnerships to gather in person. Oral paper and poster presentations were provided by practitioners, students, executives, and researchers.

Reflecting the cross-disciplinary nature of early childhood intervention, delegates and speakers had a range of professional backgrounds. They included early childhood educators and teachers, speech pathologists, physiotherapists, social workers, family peer workers, psychologists, occupational therapists, child health nurses, paediatricians, … and special educators.

The conference included seven international and national invited speakers. We noted three of the seven speakers were from the field of special education:

• Mary Louise Hemmeter PhD, Professor of Special Education, Vanderbilt University
• Patricia Snyder, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Special Education and Early Childhood Studies, University of Florida
• Mary Beth Bruder PhD, Director, University of Connecticut A.J. Pappanikou Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research, and Service

Dr Hemmeter, one of the founding researchers of the Pyramid Model (National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations) gave the Janene Swalwell Memorial Address. Hemmeter pointed out that friendships develop in contexts that promote inclusion and belonging. To help develop friendships for all children, Dr Hemmeter highlighted tiered levels of www.insped.org.au InSpEd Insights || Research Presentations support as an essential framework, and supports for caregivers and educators as a critical ingredient for the implementation of effective practice.

Implementation science was emphasised in Dr Snyder’s keynote address. Dr Snyder shared lessons learnt through an implementation of two intervention initiatives Florida Embedded Practices and Intervention with Caregivers (FL-EPIC) and FL-EPIC Early Steps Professional Development (FL-EPIC ESPD). Many valuable lessons were shared, including the importance of identifying evidence-informed frameworks and practices to guide the journey. Dr Snyder presented the Active Implementation frameworks (Implementation Practice and Science – AIRN Active Implementation Research Network ®) that were used for the projects. Dr Snyder also highlighted the importance of data use, describing one of the lessons ‘Engage in continuous quality assurance and improvement activities, including using implementation effort and effect data to help inform decisions’.

Dr Bruder’s keynote address focused on early childhood interventions personnel. Reflecting on the history of the field of early childhood intervention. Dr Bruder noted that Special Education, Early Childhood Education, and Maternal and Child Health, although separate disciplines, had the same focus, to enhance development of children with disabilities or at risk. Together, they contributed to the foundation of early childhood intervention, with special education research enhancing the understanding of how people learn. Dr Bruder also remarked on the science of learning and brain research as key influencers of current practice. Using Guralnick’s Developmental Systems Model (2001, as cited in Bruder, 2024) and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory diagram (1992, as cited in Bruder, 2024), Dr Bruder demonstrated the complexity of early childhood intervention.

Another factor contributing to the complexity of early childhood intervention relates to its cross disciplinary nature. Dr Bruder presented 11 personnel – Special Educators, a range of allied health professionals such as Speech and Language Pathologists and Audiologists and medical and health professionals as the US early childhood intervention workforce. She emphasised that family centred practice, coordination and collaboration, professionalism and evidence informed practice are core competencies across disciplines. Noting the importance of collaboration, Dr Bruder defined a team as “a group of people who are working together and share a common philosophy and common goal”. A shared understanding of core competencies and the common goal are key to successful early childhood intervention.

We thoroughly enjoyed participating in and contributing to the PRECI conference. We congratulate PRECI on the successful conference and thank the conference organising committee for this opportunity. PRECI has announced their next conference is to be held at Adelaide, SA in 13-15 May 2026.

References

DC Conferences & Association Management (2024, May 16). PRECI 2024 Newsletter.

Bruder, M. B. (2024, 1-3 May). ECI personnel: The key to effective ECI service provision. PRECI Professionals & Researchers in Early Childhood Intervention, Surfers Paradise, QLD. 

Hemmeter, M. L. (2024, 1-3 May). Everyone needs friends: Supporting the development of peer relationships. PRECI Professionals & Researchers in Early Childhood Intervention, Surfers Paradise, QLD. 

Snyder, P. (2024, 1-3 May). Putting embedded intervention into routine practice in ECI: Strategies to support adoption through sustainability. PRECI Professionals & Researchers in Early Childhood Intervention, Surfers Paradise, QLD.