The Early Childhood Coaching Handbook

How can you support both colleagues and families as they enhance their knowledge, develop new skills, and promote healthy development of young children? Coaching is the key--and the new edition of this bestselling guide is packed with even more practical tools to help early childhood professionals conduct skillful coaching at homes, schools, and communities.

Like the popular first edition, this book walks you step‐by‐step through the five characteristics of successful coaching practices: observation, action, reflection, feedback, and joint planning. You'll learn about the essential qualities of effective coaches and discover how to adjust your coaching techniques to meet the specific needs of early childhood educators, parents, and caregivers. And you'll get cutting‐edge new content inspired by user feedback, including updated research, the latest evidence‐based practices, and almost 80 pages of sample scripts and scenarios that help you support families of children with a wider variety of diagnoses. With this practical guide to proven coaching techniques, you'll be ready to help both professionals and families support the learning and development of all young children.

What's New

• More scripts and scenarios that show what coaching looks and sounds like in the real world
• A Coaching Scenario Matrix to help you find relevant examples in seconds
• New chapter on coaching for early intervention service coordinators
• More guidance on coaching throughout the IFSP process
• New examples that address common coaching challenges
• Expanded guidance on the process of coaching coaches
• Answers to key questions from the authors' popular training sessions
• Practical forms now available as fillable PDFs for download
• Updated research on the effectiveness of coaching

Practical Materials: Downloadable tools include the Coaching Plan, Framework for Reflective Questioning, Coaching Practices Rating Scale, and Coaching Log.


About the Author

Dathan D. Rush, Ed.D., CCC‐SLP, has a doctoral degree in child and family studies from Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and a master's degree in speech‐language pathology from Oklahoma State University. Dr. Rush is currently the Director of the Family, Infant and Preschool Program (FIPP) in Morganton, North Carolina. He provides ongoing technical assistance to several statewide early intervention programs to implement evidence‐based early intervention practices in natural settings. Dr. Rush previously served as Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, teaching early childhood intervention in the graduate program. He has more than 30 years of experience as a practitioner and early intervention program director and has managed a number of training contracts with various state agencies and organizations. He served as an editorial board member of Infants and Young Children until 2002 and has published articles in the area of coaching families in early intervention, in‐service training, and teaming in early intervention. He is also a past president and former executive council member of the Oklahoma Speech‐Language‐Hearing Association. Dr. Rush has presented numerous workshops nationally on topics related to writing and implementing individualized family service plans, team building, using a primary service provider approach to teaming, coaching, and supporting young children with disabilities and their families in natural learning environments. Dr. Rush has also co‐authored a previous book on coaching in early childhood intervention as well as a chapter on using a primary coach approach to teaming in Working with Families of Young Children with Special Needs (McWilliam, 2010; Guilford Press). He and Dr. Shelden are co‐authors of The Early Intervention Teaming Handbook: The Primary Service Provider Approach (Shelden & Rush, 2013).

Mâ (TM)Lisa L. Shelden, PT, Ph.D., has a doctoral degree in special education from the University of Oklahoma. She also has a bachelor's degree in physical therapy from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and a master's degree in early childhood special education from the University of Oklahoma (Norman Campus). Dr. Shelden currently serves as the Chair and Program Director of the Department of Physical Therapy at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas. Prior to joining the faculty at WSU, she served as Director/Researcher of the Family, Infant and Preschool Program (FIPP) in Morganton, North Carolina where she worked alongside Dr. Rush providing ongoing technical assistance to several statewide early intervention programs to implement evidence‐based early intervention practices in natural settings from 2002-2018.

Dr. Shelden has over 30 years of experience as a physical therapist and special educator. In addition, she received a 2000 National Institute on Disabilities and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) Mary E. Switzer Merit Fellowship. She is a graduate Fellow of the ZERO TO THREE National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. Dr. Shelden has co‐authored several articles related to early intervention teamwork, writing individualized family service plans (IFSPs), coaching, and supporting young children with disabilities and their families in natural learning environments. She has also written a chapter related to physical therapy personnel preparation and service delivery and co‐authored a book titled Physical Therapy under IDEA (McEwen, Arnold, Jones, & Shelden, 2000; American Physical Therapy Association, Section on Pediatrics). Dr. Shelden has co‐authored a previous text Coaching Families and Colleagues in Early Childhood (with Barbara E. Hanft & Dathan D. Rush; 2004, Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.) as well as a chapter on using a primary coach approach to teaming in Working with Families of Young Children with Special Needs (McWilliam, 2010; Guilford Press). She and Dr. Rush are co‐authors of The Early Intervention Teaming Handbook: The Primary Service Provider Approach (Shelden & Rush, 2013). Dr. Shelden has made numerous presentations nationally on topics related to IFSP development and implementation, transition, inclusion, evaluation and assessment, coaching, primary service provider approach to teaming, and provision of supporting children with disabilities and their families in natural learning environments.