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ViewAttendees 6

Symposia

Dissemination & Implementation Science

Session: Implementing Executive Functioning Interventions and Supports in the Community for Youth and Their Families

1 - (SYM 122) Developing Implementation Facilitators to Expand the Reach and Impact of Unstuck and on Target in Elementary Schools

Sunday, November 19, 2023
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM PST
Location: Katchess (405), Level 4

Background



Unstuck and On Target (Cannon et al., 2021) is a school-based executive functioning (EF) intervention designed to empower children to think flexibly to solve their problems and make plans to reach their own goals. It has been proven effective, including in an Addressing Disparities trial for students with ASD and/or ADHD attending Title I schools (Anthony et al., 2021). To support implementation, we created a free, online CE training and resource website for educators and evaluated the training and the implementation (fidelity, cost) of Unstuck in 230 schools.



 



Methods



281 school staff from Colorado (n=143) and Virginia (n=138) agreed to complete the training, provide feedback, and implement Unstuck. These educators were 93.6% female, 90% White, 20-80 years old (M=40.48, SD=10.88). They were primarily: Special Ed teachers (34%), School Psychologists (19%), Counselors (17%), and General Ed teachers (10%). They represented 230 public, charter, special education, private, religious, and virtual schools (8% rural, 35% Title I). Fidelity observations were conducted with 36 educators. Time-based activity cost logs were collected from 110 educators. Knowledge questions were completed before and after the training and implementation of Unstuck; this data will be ready by the conference. Qualitative interview results will be available.



 



Results



Of the implementers (n=161) who completed post data, 71% reported that they had completed the online training; of those, 83% indicated that they felt that their knowledge of the needs of elementary students had increased (M=4.03/5, SD=0.65). [SC2] They also felt significantly more understanding of EF challenges after completing the online training, t(19)=4.65, p < .001. 118 educators reported delivering some Unstuck lessons in the 2021/22 school year, but only 9 completed all 21. Most reported that COVID-related issues made it impossible to complete all sessions. However, 152 (95.6%) planned to use Unstuck this year.



 



Educators selected for fidelity observations showed high fidelity (M=9.22/10, SD=0.87). Common modifications included varying group sizes (range: 1-29 students) and duration of group time. Overall, educators spent an average of 3.24 hours per week on all Unstuck activities (Median=1.71 hours/week) at a time cost of ~$3-5,000 per school each year.



 



Conclusions



Unstuck is a low-cost, evidence-supported EF intervention that can be implemented by school staff, thus increasing access to care for elementary age children with flexibility, organization and planning challenges.