Feasibility and Acceptability of an Adapted Evidence-Based Team Training Approach From Health care to the Early Intervention Context: A Brief Report.
TeamSTEPPS, retooled for early intervention, boosts staff teamwork perceptions and is well-liked by EI providers.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Albright et al. (2025) took a hospital teamwork program called TeamSTEPPS and trimmed it for early-intervention staff.
They ran one small case study with local EI providers. The team looked at whether staff liked the training and felt they worked better together.
What they found
Providers said the new teamwork tools were easy to use and helpful. After the short course they rated their own teamwork higher than before.
How this fits with other research
Strauss et al. (2015) extend this idea. They added Shared Decision-Making training for EIBI teams and saw child gains plus less parent stress.
Pellecchia et al. (2025) used a similar small-N plan. Their PEACE toolkit lifted caregiver-coaching fidelity, showing quick provider-level fixes can work.
Pickard et al. (2025) looked at the same Part C world but found coaching fidelity helped parents use strategies yet did not boost child social skills. The mixed result reminds us that teamwork and fidelity are helpful, yet not magic bullets for every child outcome.
Why it matters
You now have a free, ready-made teamwork script that EI staff enjoy. Run a one-hour TeamSTEPPS booster in your next in-service day. Pair it with shared decision-making steps from Strauss et al. (2015) so families leave feeling heard. Track one thing: staff rating of "We work well together." If the number rises, keep the routine alive each quarter.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Interdisciplinary team collaboration is a foundational value of early intervention (EI) services; however, preservice education programs and continued education or professional development opportunities for EI providers rarely focus on how to effectively navigate team dynamics. Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) is an established evidence-based intervention for improving team processes in health care and has shown promise for school mental health service teams. In this descriptive paper, we detail our adaptation of TeamSTEPPS for use with an EI organization, the resulting impact on provider perceptions of teamwork, and acceptability of the TeamSTEPPS training and curriculum in this context. These findings provide important insights into the needs of EI providers as it pertains to training and support on interdisciplinary teamwork and collaboration.
Journal of early intervention, 2025 · doi:10.1186/s40814-019-0529-z