Bettag, Dewayne2017-12-182017-12-182016-12http://hdl.handle.net/10125/51586Ph.D. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2016.Includes bibliographical references.Research shows early childhood is critical for establishing a foundation for overall development and future success (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child [NSCDC], 2012). Empirically supported early childhood services (ECS) are the most effective, efficient means of promoting lifelong success (Heckman, 2006). However, policies and resource allocation often do not adequately support such services, and there remains a large gap between what research tells us and what we actually do (Shonkoff, 2004; Young, 2013). This dissertation examines a program designed to address this gap by providing effective ECS based on themes and best practices extracted from what the literature tells us. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 explores the literature and the need for such services to serve predominantly Native Hawaiian communities on O‘ahu. They also describe the existing evidence that supports why Responsive Teaching (RT) was chosen as the paradigm used in the current study. Project SPIRIT (Supporting Parents In Responsive Interactions and Teaching) used the themes and best practices of Chapter 2 to guide the adaptation and implementation of the RT paradigm and empirically answer the primary research question. Can the RT paradigm be adapted effectively to serve low-SES, predominantly Native Hawaiian communities on O‘ahu by strengthening caregiver-child relationships and improving the children’s cognitive, communicative, social emotional, and overall developmental functioning. This study explored in Chapters 3, 4, and 5 implemented a naturalistic, before-and-after design to test whether the program could use the RT paradigm to improve developmental outcomes for children by promoting responsive interactions and enhancing caregiver-child relationships. This is the first to do so in naturalistic environments in predominantly Native Hawaiian communities and to include such diverse ability levels in the study’s sample. There is strong evidence that the children who completed the program showed significant improvements in developmental outcomes across all domains. However, the correlational research design and the lack of a control group make it impossible to establish a causal relationship between the program procedures and developmental outcomes. The discussion of these details adds to both the existing RT related research and the general literature regarding the adaptation and implementation of ECS.engAttachmentDevelopmental DelayDisabilityEarly ChildhoodEducationHome VisitingInterventionNaturalisticRelationship-basedResponsivityThesis