A Pilot Evaluation of the PEACE Implementation Toolkit to Improve the Use of Caregiver Coaching in Early Intervention.
A low-burden toolkit lifted provider coaching fidelity and parent warmth in community early intervention.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Pellecchia et al. (2025) tested a ready-to-use kit called PEACE. The kit gives early-intervention providers checklists, scripts, and short videos.
Providers used the kit while coaching parents of toddlers with autism. The team tracked how well the providers followed the coaching steps.
What they found
After the kit arrived, providers stuck to the coaching steps far better. Parents also used more warm, helpful responses with their kids.
Providers said the kit was easy, fair, and fit real life.
How this fits with other research
Pickard et al. (2025) saw the same setting: Part C community teams. They found that higher provider fidelity helped parents use the strategies, but it did not lift child skills or parent warmth on its own. The PEACE kit now shows you can raise that fidelity on purpose.
Spackman et al. (2025), Liao et al. (2025), and Davis et al. (2023) all moved caregiver coaching to telehealth. They still got big child gains. Pellecchia stayed in-person and aimed at the provider first, not the parent. The two views pair up: telehealth works when travel is hard; PEACE works when you meet face-to-face and want bullet-proof coaching.
McGeown et al. (2013) ran an earlier school-based parent class. It helped, but it had no toolkit for daily provider use. PEACE updates that work by giving staff a light lift they can keep in their tote bag.
Why it matters
You can hand the PEACE toolkit to any early-intervention coach tomorrow. No long training, no new degree. Providers follow the steps, parents feel more supported, and sessions stay on track. If you run Part C services, slip the kit into orientation packets and watch fidelity rise within weeks.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Caregiver coaching is an essential component of caregiver-mediated interventions for young autistic children. Previous research evaluating usual practice in early intervention (EI) has found that EI providers often do not use caregiver coaching. Increasing the use of caregiver coaching strategies is critical to improving the outcomes of EI. We used a community-partnered process to develop a toolkit of implementation strategies to improve the use of caregiver coaching in EI. This study presents findings from a preliminary evaluation of the toolkit using a non-concurrent multiple-baseline design across groups of providers and caregiver–child dyads. The results indicate that providers’ caregiver coaching fidelity improved following the introduction of the toolkit. Caregivers demonstrated moderate growth in their use of supportive parenting techniques. All providers rated the toolkit as acceptable, appropriate, and feasible. The findings suggest that a toolkit of implementation strategies tailored to support the needs of community-based providers shows promise for improving caregiver coaching in EI.
Behavioral Sciences, 2025 · doi:10.3390/bs15091164