Data-based Decision Making Using the Early Communication Indicator

Jay Buzhardt

3/7/2017 11:47 PM

The Early Communication Indicator (ECI) measures infant-toddler expressive communication. It's designed to help early childhood educators and interventionists identify young children at risk for a language delay, and to monitor how the child is responding to intervention. Some of it's features include:

• - Six minute administration time
• - Play-based - child plays with a familiar adult play partner
• - Observational - child behaviors are counted
• - Monthly benchmarks are available for children 6-42 months of age
• - Can be administered with parents or other primary caregivers
• - No pre-requisites needed to be certified to code/score
• - Web-based system provides parent-friendly growth charts (modelled after height-weight charts)
• - Psychometrically sound - valid and reliable
• - Used in Early Head Start and Part C programs in 24 states

The ECI is one of a larger suite of infant-toddler IGDIs (Individual Growth and Development Indicators) that also includes measures for movement, cognitive problem solving, and social skills. IGDIs provide early childhood service providers (e.g., home visitors, early interventionists and child care personnel working in Part C or other early intervention programs) with the tools to identify children who need greater intensity of services, monitor individual children’s progress toward meaningful outcomes, and use data to drive intervention and program decision making and accountability.

How to Administer the ECI

ECI administration involves a child (6-42 months of age) and familiar adult playing with a Fisher Price Barn or House for six minutes. Interference from other children, media (TV, radio, phones, etc.) should be avoided, stopping the assessment temporarily to remove distractions if necessary. A full list of administration instructions are available here, but here are some key guidelines that the adult play partner should follow during the play session:

• - Play with the child in a manner that encourages interaction with the toy and the adult, but does not direct it.
  - Follow the child’s communicative lead, respond to their words and/or gestures
  - Comment about what the child is doing, or describe what he/she is doing.
  - It is okay to ask some questions, however, questioning should not be the primary manner of interacting with child.

In order to adequately monitor a child's growth and identify delays early, we recommend administering the ECI quarterly for children at or above benchmark, and more frequently (e.g., monthly or bi-monthly) for children receiving some form of intervention targeting expressive communication. Rather than giving you a snapshot in time of a child's performance, taking more frequent measures allows you to see how a child's language is growing over time, how this growth compares to expected growth, and/or how it compares to the child's own growth before she began intervention.

Scoring the ECI

During the six minute play session, a certified ECI coder (see ECI Training below) marks on a standard score sheet each time the child uses any of the four ECI key skill elements: Gestures, Vocalizations, Single Words, or Multiple Words. Coding can be done live during the assessment or from a videotaped administration. After coding the session, the assessor enters their counts into a web-based system that plots the child's scores on a graph to see the child's individual growth over time and how it compares to age-based benchmarks. These graphs show benchmark growth trajectories for the ECI Total score and each of the key skill elements. It is important to note that these benchmarks are expressed as a 'rate per minute' (e.g., the multiple word benchmark at 30 months of age is about 2.5 multiple words per minute). Go to our website for more details about scoring the ECI.

Using the ECI to Monitor Progress and Guide Intervention Decisions

Although the ECI can be used as an outcome measure for research studies and for program-wide evaluation, its primary purpose is to monitor individual child progress and to inform intervention decisions. In fact, the web-based data system has additional tools that can help guide data-based decision making, which we describe in the next post in this collection. However, even without additional support, the ECI graphs alone can be a useful tool for ongoing monitoring of a child's growth in expressive communication. These progress monitoring graphs show an example of a child who scored in the area of concern (at least 1 standard deviation below benchmark) at about 15 months of age. Approaches to addressing the concern were documented and reflected on the graphs, providing a clear indication of how the child responded to each approach. A child's performance on the key skill elements are particularly helpful in informing what intervention is needed or how an existing intervention should be adjusted.

ECI Training

Training for the ECI involves certification to score assessments and familiarity with the guidelines for adult play partners to follow during the assessment. Recommended training for program staff usually involves a 1-day onsite training. Administrative staff are also encouraged to attend the training even if they are not going to administer the ECI for their program. The morning portion of the training is devoted to describing data-based decision making practices, a comprehensive description of the ECI, practice scoring, and a description of the online data system and data management. The afternoon portion of the training is devoted to individual scoring certification by each trainee. During certification, each staff person being certified watches and scores two videos. They enter their scores into the online data system, which compares their scores to a master scoring. Once accuracy of 85% or higher has been achieved on both videos, that staff member is certified to score. Trainers provide one-on-one feedback for individuals who do not achieve 85%, and trainees try the video again until they achieve 85%. For administration certification, after the onsite training, one staff member videotapes themselves administering the ECI and sends to IGDI staff to check administration fidelity against that IGDI’s fidelity checklist. Our website provides more information about training.

Additional Resources

Psychometric properties of the ECI (validity, reliability, scalability):

Greenwood, C., Buzhardt, J., Walker, D., Anderson, R., Howard, W., & Carta, J. (2011). Program-level Influences on the Measurement of Early Communication of Infants and Toddlers in Early Head Start. Journal of Early Intervention, 33, 110-134.

Greenwood , C. R., Carta, J. J., Walker , D., Hughes, K., & Weathers, M. (2006). Preliminary investigations of the application of the Early Communication Indicator (ECI) for infants and toddlers. Journal of Early Intervention, 28, 178 -196.

Greenwood, C., Walker, D., & Buzhardt, J. (2010). The Early Communication Indicator (ECI) for Infants and Toddlers: Early Head Start Growth Norms from Two States. Journal of Early Intervention, 32(5), 310-334.

Greenwood, C. R., Walker, D., Buzhardt, J., Howard, W. J., McCune, L., & Anderson, R. (2013). Evidence of a continuum in foundational expressive communication skills. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 28, 540-554.

Greenwood, C. R., Walker, D., Buzhardt, J., McCune, L., & Howard, W. J. (2013). Advancing the construct validity of the Early Communication Indicator (ECI) for infants and toddlers: Equivalence of growth trajectories across two Early Head Start samples. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 28, 743-758.

SGD/Communication device,Gestures,Early sounds/vocalizations (not speech),Level 1. Pre-Intentional Behavior,Level 4. Conventional Communication

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