Center for Evidence-Based Practice: Young Children with Challenging Behavior. About Us

About Us

Purpose Statement

The Center for Evidence-Based Practice: Young Children with Challenging Behavior is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs to raise the awareness and implementation of positive, evidence-based practices and to build an enhanced and more accessible database to support those practices.

Mission

The mission of the Center is to promote the use of evidence-based practice to meet the needs of young children who have, or are at risk for, problem behavior.

Values

The Center is guided by a commitment to a set of shared beliefs regarding the purpose and process of our activities. The following core principles apply to our research, training, and dissemination activities:

Interventions must be deliverable and effective across diverse populations;
Interventions must result in outcomes that are valued by families affected by the procedures, as well as by members of the community at-large;
Interventions must be affordable, feasible, and acceptable to diverse communities;
Assessment of intervention outcomes must be longitudinal, multidimensional, socially significant, linked to the fidelity of implementation, and tied to consumer needs and wishes;
Interventions must be implemented at different levels of scale including local, regional, and state in order to fully understand their parameters;
Studies, procedures, and instruments must be replicated across sites in order to guard against parochial outcomes and ensure widespread applicability;
Families, community leaders, and program personnel play a vital role in the design, implementation, and evaluation of all Center efforts;
All interventions are designed to enhance competencies, rather than remediate problems of children, families, educators, and/or significant others.

Evidence-based Practice

Evidence-based practice refers to the use of interventions and supports that have research documenting their effectiveness. The identification of evidence-based practices promotes the use of approaches that are linked to positive outcomes for children and families. Practices that are considered evidence-based are ones that have been demonstrated as effective within multiple research studies that document similar outcomes. Dunst, Trivette, and Cutspec (2002) offer the following operational definition of evidence-based practice that is particularly meaningful for the field of early education and intervention [1]:

Evidence-based practices are “Practices that are informed by research, in which the characteristics and consequences of environmental variables are empirically established and the relationship directly informs what a practitioner can do to produce a desired outcome".

[1] Dunst, C. J., Trivett, C. M., & Cutspec, P. A. (2002). Toward an operational definition of evidence-based practice. Centerscope, 1(1), 1-10.
Available at http://www.evidencebasedpractices.org/centerscope

Challenging Behavior

Challenging behavior – for the purpose of the Center, challenging behavior is defined as any repeated pattern of behavior, or perception of behavior, that interferes with or is at risk of interfering with optimal learning or engagement in pro-social interactions with peers and adults. Challenging behavior is thus defined on the basis of its effects. While some children’s challenging behaviors are developmentally normative and effectively addressed by adult vigilance and the use of appropriate guidance procedures, the Center is focused on identifying evidence-based practices that prevent and/or address challenging behaviors that are persistent or unresponsive to those approaches. For infants and toddlers, challenging behavior must be considered within the context of the relationship of the child to caregivers. Behavior that is challenging, for example, may manifest as attachment difficulties, sleeping and eating difficulties, excessive crying, and difficulty in soothing. Challenging behaviors may be defined as behaviors that interfere with the development and maintenance of reciprocal, positive, and nurturing relationships with the parent or caregiver. Challenging behavior, as a pattern of behavior, is noted by considering the relationship of the child and adult and the difficulties that are manifested in the dyadic exchange.

Primary Partner Organizations

National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE)
1030 15th Street, NW, Suite 470
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202-898-1829
http://www.nabe.org
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
1509 16th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036-1426
Phone: 202-232-8777 or 800-424-2460
http://www.naeyc.org
The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA)
1319 F. Street, NW
Suite 500
Washington, DC 20004-1106
Phone: 202-393-5501
http://www.naccrra.org
National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI)
1101 15th Street NW
Suite 900
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202-833-2220
http://www.nbcdi.org

The Division for Early Childhood (DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children
634 Eddy
Misoula, MT 59812-6696
Phone: 406-243-5898
http://www.dec-sped.org

The National Head Start Association (NHSA)
1651 Prince Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone: 703-739-0875
http://www.nhsa.org

Center for Evidence-Based Practice: Young Children with Challenging Behavior
andThe Center Web site are located at the University of South Florida
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