Professional Development Tools to Improve the Quality of Infant & Toddler Care (Q-CCIIT PD Tools)

2015-2023

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The Q-CCIIT PD Tools project developed a research-based professional development system called We Grow Together. As part of We Grow Together, teachers and caregivers work with their professional development providers (mentors, coaches, supervisors) using resources delivered on an interactive website. The resources include training videos, materials, and exercises targeting the same principles and practices assessed by the Q-CCIIT observation tool: support for socioemotional, language and literacy, and cognitive development. This project conducted a field test to examine the implementation of We Grow Together with teachers and caregivers of infants and toddlers and their professional development providers in Early Head Start, family child care, and community-based child care settings.

The field test sought to address the following research questions:

  1. What tools and supports help early childhood professionals use We Grow Together’s responsive caregiving principles to improve caregiver-child interactions?
  2. Can WGT be used by early childhood professionals to support change in beliefs, knowledge, or practice concerning infants and toddlers?

This project is led by Mathematica (Louisa Tarullo as Project Director, Shannon Monahan, and Sally Atkins-Burnett).

Point(s) of contact: Ann Rivera and Jenessa Malin

This study is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov under the title: Professional Development Tools to Improve the Quality of Infant and Toddler Care (Q-CCIT PD)

Information collections related to this project have been reviewed and approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under OMB #0970-0513. Related materials are available at the Professional Development Tools to Improve the Quality of Infant and Toddler Care (Q-CCIT PD Tools) page on RegInfo.gov.

To access the information collections (E.g. interviews, surveys, protocols), click on View Information Collection (IC) List. Click on View Supporting Statement and Other Documents to access other supplementary documents.

Related Resources

This brief describes the implementation of We Grow Together, a research-based professional development system for caregivers working with infants and toddlers in center-based care and family child care homes.

This brief describes differences in beliefs, knowledge, and practices of infant and toddler caregivers from fall 2018 to spring 2019 — before and after implementation of the We Grow Together Professional Development System.

This brief describes the professional development experiences of caregivers and PD providers that participated in the field test of the We Grow Together Professional Development System.

Explore this recorded session from the Society for Research in Child Development 2021 Biennial Meeting (SRCD 2021) focused on web-based professional development approaches that aim to target coach-caregiver interactions to improve caregiver-child interactions.

This report presents a proposed study design that would examine the feasibility and potential benefits of investing time in the We Grow Together Professional Development System for infant and toddler caregivers.

This report includes findings from a WGT field test conducted from fall 2018 through spring 2019.

This report and accompanying materials summarize the state of the field on in-service professional development methods for early childhood caregivers. This comprehensive literature review draws on empirical studies, reviews, and meta-analyses conducted within the past 10 years and websites of leading organizations to identify the most promising methods and practices for improving caregiver interactions with young children...

This recorded session from ACF’s National Research Conference on Early Childhood 2020 (NRCEC 2020) featured a presentation on the We Grow Together Professional Development System (WGT) field test (beginning at time marker 22:45) alongside presentations from two other projects.

We Grow Together (WGT) is a professional development (PD) system for caregivers working with infants and toddlers in center-based care and family child care homes. Caregivers are supported in planning and using the WGT practices through relationship- and practice-based coaching from a trained local PD provider who can be a coach, supervisor, mentor, or anyone else who provides ongoing PD. WGT is based on nationally recommended best practices for interacting with infants and toddlers that are measured with the Q-CCIIT observational tool.