Early intervention providers across the state are learning to adopt an evidence-based caregiver coaching approach to support infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families in Florida! Florida Embedded Practices and Intervention with Caregivers Early Steps Professional Development (FL-EPIC ESPD; COQXY) is a collaboration between the Early Steps Part C program in Florida, the Anita Zucker Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Studies at the University of Florida, and the Communication and Early Childhood Research and Practice Center. This year, we are expanding into Early Steps Programs in Big Bend, Gold Coast, and North Beaches. In 2020, Western Panhandle, Gulf Central, Southwest, and Southernmost Coast joined other FL-EPIC sites in North Dade, North Central, Northeastern, Space Coast, and Treasure Coast, to promote the use of caregiver coaching practices in their regions! With ongoing support from UF and FSU, each program is staffed with coaches who support providers to implement FL-EPIC through a sequence of evidence-based professional development supports, including practice-based coaching. COVID 19 changed everyone’s lives, but it did not stop Florida programs from making gains in their use of caregiver coaching practices during virtual home visits and in-person sessions. By supporting providers to use effective caregiver coaching practices, we are building caregivers’ use of strategies that help their child grow and learn in their everyday routines and activities and improve social-emotional and other important outcomes for infants and toddlers across the state.

For more information on FL-EPIC ESPD, please visit the project website.