Implementation Toolkit to Enhance EBP Among Marginalized Families

Although the efficacy of early intervention (EI) for autistic children and their families has been established, many marginalized families with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds still report inequitable access to evidence-based practices (EBP). There are several strategies to increase EBP implementation that are especially relevant to marginalized families who report inequitable access to coaching from EI providers, such as increasing the capacity of EI providers to coach families in a culturally responsive way. However, EI providers are provided with limited professional development in both family coaching and cultural responsiveness, which results in perpetuation of EBP implementation failure. Thus, it is crucial to develop and validate an implementation toolkit that comprises strategies to enhance cultural responsiveness in the uptake of EBPs among EI providers. Therefore, the overall purpose of this research is to identify facilitators and barriers of EBP implementation among marginalized families in EI to aid the development an implementation toolkit with a focus on capacity building of EI providers to implement EBP with cultural responsiveness. This will involve conducting individual interviews with EI providers.