Autism can be reliably diagnosed at 18-24 months; however, the average age of diagnosis remains at 4-5 years, which is relatively high in relation to the earliest age at which it can be accurately diagnosed. This gap in diagnosis provides an opportunity to train early childhood educators to recognize the early signs of autism, so they can identify children in their care showing these signs and refer them for further evaluation if needed. A widely used course that focuses on the early red flags of autism, Autism Navigator About Autism in Toddlers, is freely available online. Barriers such as, lack of access to the technology required to complete an online training may prevent some early educators from accessing this course. To explore if providing early educators with training completion instructions served to alleviate these barriers, a SMART design (i.e., two-stage randomization) was implemented. In Stage 1, participants were randomly assigned to a support—completion instructions with either text or pictures only, to facilitate their completion of the training. In Stage 2, participants who failed to complete the training in Stage 1 were randomly assigned to a new support—text and picture completion instructions with or without a webinar. While the study aimed to identify the initial and subsequent subsequent support to offer to facilitate early childhood educators’ completion of the Autism Navigator About Autism in Toddlers online course, the supports provided had no significant influence on training completion. Instead, participant characteristics (e.g., highest level of education) significantly contributed to training completion. The study findings can inform strategies to increase accessibility of online training about the early signs of autism for a wider variety of early childhood educators, which could lead to more timely identification of autism in young children. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Communication Science and Disorders in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / 2019 / October 17, 2019. / autism early identification, early childhood education, online training, professional development / Includes bibliographical references. / Amy M. Wetherby, Professor Directing Dissertation; Chris Schatschneider, University Representative; Carla Wood, Committee Member; Mollie Romano, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_752339 |
| Contributors | Davis, Iris N. (Iris Nicole) (author), Wetherby, Amy M. (professor directing dissertation), Schatschneider, Christopher (university representative), Wood, Carla (committee member), Friedman, Mollie (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Communication and Information (degree granting college), School of Communication Science and Disorders (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (86 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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