Coaching Early Interventionists: Responsive Interactions for Social-Emotional Development of Children With Autism

Abstract

207 Vol. 25, No. 4, December 2022 YOUNG EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN https://doi.org/10.1177/10962506211028584 DOI: 10.1177/10962506211028584 journals.sagepub.com/home/yec Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions © 2021 Division for Early Childhood Positive social-emotional development in young children has been linked to better school age social and academic skills (Nix et al., 2013). An important aspect of social-emotional development is emotional regulation, the ability to recognize emotions and respond to situations with appropriate behavior (California Department of Education, 2017). However, for many young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), both caregivers and educators report challenges with emotion regulation including periods of dysregulation that get in the way of the child’s ability to learn (Weiss et al., 2014). Dysregulation can manifest in the form of repetitive behaviors (e.g., object-focused, vocal stims), challenging behaviors (e.g., hitting, throwing objects), sensory sensitivity (e.g., sound or texture), increased arousal/activity level, and/ or flat affect or disinterest, which can all impede the child’s learning and social interactions (Weiss et al., 2014). Due to these challenges in regulation, young children require co-regulatory supports from adults (e.g., scaffolding, emotional coaching, etc.) to learn to selfregulate (e.g., Ting & Weiss, 2017). For new and less experienced early intervention (EI) practitioners, providing co-regulatory supports to 1028584 YECXXX10.1177/10962506211028584Young Exceptional ChildrenCoaching Early Interventionists / Shire and Chang research-article2021