What Are IGDIs and Why Use Them? Dale Walker, PhD, Jay Buzhardt, PhD & Barbara Terry, PhD Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, University of Kansas

Infant IGDI Development Team Current IGDI Development Team: Charles Greenwood, Judith Carta, Dale Walker, Jay Buzhardt, Kathleen Baggett, Barbara Terry and Mary Abbott Original IGDI Development Team: Judith Carta, Charles Greenwood, Dale Walker, Jane Atwater, Gayle Luze, Deborah Linebarger, Carol Leitschuh, Ken Parsley, Annessa Staab, Gabe Cline, and Susan Higgins IPCI Development Team: Kathleen Baggett, Judith Carta and Eva Horn

Focus on Outcomes-Based Program Evaluation Increased expectations for accountability Need to identify children who need early intervention Programs and individual staff members need to know when they are making a difference in moving children toward outcomes Early educators need to know how children are responding to interventions

Why are we interested in examining children’s outcomes? To check on individual children’s growth To inform parents about child growth To ramp up individual children’s program if necessary (in a tiered model, to decide when to change to more intensive or individualized intervention) To get a check on how well our programs are doing To ramp up professional development in programs if necessary

Young Children Not Entering School Ready to Learn (Terry, Carta, Greenwood et al. ) Evaluation of readiness profile for children in Northeast Kansas City kindergarten School Readiness 22 nd percentile in Oral Language 30 th percentile on Initial Sound Fluency and Phonemic Segmentation 40 th percentile on Social Skills

Missouri School Readiness Indicators Project (2004) Percent of children recognizing relationship between letters and sounds at kindergarten entry 35% (decreased – goal 50%) Percent of children using language to communicate ideas, feelings, questions and to solve problems 59% (decreased – goal is 70%)

These Studies and Reports Tell Us That… Differences in early experiences : Lead to differences in early language and school readiness outcomes for children prior to preschool, and impact children through early elementary school Young children are not entering preschool or kindergarten with expected levels of proficiency in key areas of development Children who begin school at a disadvantage, with lower rates of language-learning and lower general performance continue to be at a disadvantage during early schooling

Key Questions: How can we learn more quickly that a child is falling behind in development? How can we use that information to guide what we do in our programs? How do we know if what we are doing is improving a child’s trajectory?

What are IGDIs and What do they do? Measures that provide helpful information about children's growth toward socially valued outcomes and that guide intervention decision making Measures that focus on key skills indicators rather than wide-band comprehensive skills

“Indicators” can lead to improvements in intervention Can give us a focus for our efforts with young children Can help interventionists “see” when they’re making a difference Can help us know more quickly when a change is necessary Can help directors understand when programs need improvements

Other Common “Indicators” Height/weight Charts Thermometer Quick and easy Relatively inexpensive Repeatable Indicates potential problem and effectiveness of an intervention

The General Outcome Measurement (GOM) Approach Measure valid and important general outcomes for infants and toddlers Measure “sensitive” indicators of progress toward attaining the general outcome Measure indicators repeatedly to gauge rate of growth over time Use a rate of growth metric (Growth Chart) Intervention decisions may be made based on progress or lack of progress as measured by change in the indicator

IGDIs are alternative to existing measures in that they are: Direct measures of child performance Designed for early interventionists to administer Sensitive to short-term growth Information that guides early interventionists Website Reports understandable and helpful to interventionists