Early Communication Indicator (ECI)

Full Project Report for Juniper Gardens Children's Project
December 7, 2005
Sample Data Only

This report is separated into the following three sections:

 

The Assessor Reports provide information about program staff members who have learned the ECI, the number of observations conducted, and inter-observer agreement scores (percentage agreement). Assessors included are those: (a) who are registered as active in the ECI online database; (b) who have a certification date entered in the database, or (c) who have completed at least one child assessment.

Registered Assessors, Certification Status, and ECI Assessments Completed

ECI Reliability Report -- Percentage Agreement

Percentage Agreement is a measure of the extent to which two observers agree in recording specific instances of child communication. This measure provides important information about the reliability, or accuracy, of ECI assessments. Our goal is percentage agreement of 85 or higher in every category.

The Child Reports provide descriptive information about the children who have been enrolled and who have received ECI assessments.

Children Enrolled – Active and Inactive

The following tables describe children who are currently active in the ECI database.

Child age

Child Gender

Special Needs Status -- IFSP

Primary language Spoken in Child's Home

Source of Funding

These reports provide information on the children’s progress in developing communication proficiency, and thus, the program’s effectiveness.

How Many Registered Children Have ECI Primary Data?

In Juniper Gardens Children's Project, 22 active children have been registered, and 15 have at least one ECI assessment. A total of 62 ECI observations have been conducted with these children.

How Many Primary ECI Observations Do Individual Children Have at This Point?

Cumulative Number of ECI Observations	Percentage of Children with that Number of Observations
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >8	31.8 18.2 18.2 13.6 4.5 4.5 4.5 0 0 4.5
	100.0

Communication Distribution for Children in the Program

This frequency histogram shows the number of children at various levels of total communication fluency across the range of 0 to 43 (the maximum level), based on their most recent assessments. This distribution provides a point in time look at the communication status of all children in the program. Based on the total communication fluency of a 36 month old as a desired outcome for all children to achieve, we define three groups of communicators based on the total communication score: Fluent, Emerging, and Novice.

Fluent communicators are children with total communication scores of 12 per minute and higher (They have all key skills in evidence).

Emerging communicators are children with total communication scores between 6 and 12 per minute (They are acquiring words and multiple words).

Novice communicators are children in transition from prelinguistic to spoken language between 0 and 6 per minute. (They are primarily prelinguistic communicators).

Clearly, children's age and experience strongly affects the numbers of children at these levels in a project, as does the conditions in their lives that promote communication. This chart enables project staff the ability to know where on the path to communication proficiency their children are at this point in time.

Children Who Are on Target, Slightly Below (> = -1.0 SD), or Below Benchmark (> = -1.5 SD) in Total Communication Development Based on Their Latest ECI Measurement

The first table below shows the number and percentage of children in each age group whose ECI total communication rate is on target, slightly below (-1.0 SD), or below benchmark (-1.5 SD) as indicated by normative data. Normative data are based on the performance of children in previous ECI research. In the second table, the same information is provided for each program.

Normative Sample Description. The normative information included in this report differs from past reports in that the normative sample is larger (N = 1311) compared to the original sample used in previous reports (N = 50). The revised normative sample includes children who attended both center- and home-based programs, including community- and university-based programs, Part C, and Early Head Start. It is representative of children who are racially diverse, with Spanish and English as home languages, and with diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. For the present analyses, children who had an IFSP were not included in the normative sample because of the interest in identifying the rate of typical communication development.

Interpreting the ECI Proficiency Status Information. Communication proficiency status on the ECI as presented in the next table was determined by taking into account the last, most recent ECI data point entered for each child and comparing that score to the normative ECI benchmarks for children at a comparable age. For example, if a child had 4 ECI observations entered into the system, only that child’s last, or most recent ECI data were used to determine their relative proficiency status for this report in the table below. This approach enables all children with any ECI data collected for them (e.g., those with only one data point) to be included in the report.

Children listed in the following table as being Slightly Below Benchmark in their communication had ECI Total Communication scores that were at, or below, -1.0 standard deviation of the normative mean. Children included in the table as being Below Benchmark had scores that were at, or below, -1.5 standard deviations of the normative mean. Please remember that the purpose of the ECI is to monitor children’s communication progress over time, and to compare programs to the norm group to facilitate decision-making related to intervention and program planning. While these data are important in a group summary, it is also very important to attend to the individual pattern of each child’s total communication when making decisions regarding intervention or referral for further testing.

Age Group	Proficiency Status
	On Target	Slightly Below Benchmark	Below Benchmark	Total
1-11 Months	2 100%	0%	0%	2 100.0%
12-23 Months	1 50%	0%	1 50%	2 100.0%
24-35 Months	4 57.1%	1 14.3%	2 28.6%	7 100.0%
36-47 Months	1 25%	2 50%	1 25%	4 100.0%
Overall	8 53.3%	3 20%	4 26.7%	15 100%

Age Group	Proficiency Status
	On Target	Slightly Below Benchmark	Below Benchmark	Total
Juniper Gardens Test	8 53.3%	3 20%	4 26.7%	15 100.0%
Test Program2	0 0%	0 0%	0 0%	0 100.0%
Overall	8 53.3%	3 20%	4 26.7%	15 100%

Children Who Are Off Target in Communication Development and Who Warrant Special Attention

Child Name	Risk Status
Valient, Prince	Slightly Below Average
Cute, Claire	Slightly Below Average
Webb, Sasha	Slightly Below Average
House, Danny	Below Average
Lewis, Bill	Below Average
Buzhardt, Jay	Below Average
Cute, Brad	Below Average
Cute, Annie	Below Average
Cute, Kevin	Below Average
Smith, John T.	Below Average

Average Trend in Key Skill Elements for Children in the Project

This frequency histogram shows the number of children at various levels of communication across the range of 0 to 42 (the maximum level), based on their most recent assessments. This distribution provides a look at the communication status of most children in the program and helps fix future goals.

The average rate of gestures.

The average rate of vocalizations (non-words).

The average rate of single word commmunications.

The average rate of multiple word communications.

 

Communication Outcome and Rate of Communication Growth for Total Communication for Project Juniper Gardens Children's Project Compared to the Norm Group

In the final graph below, the straight, blue line (norm line) indicates the progress we would expect typically developing children to make based on the average performance of children in our previous studies. The black line shows the mean total communication rates observed with the Project Juniper Gardens Children's Projectchildren on the ECI. Overall, the average communication rates follow the expected developmental trajectory for young children across time.