Table 3.

Focus Group Interview Findings: Themes, Findings, and Prevalence of Response

Theme	Relation to Study Purpose	Description Based on Findings	Illustrative Quote	# Sources Referencing Theme	# Times Theme Referenced
Importance of the goals	Social validity	Stakeholders were specifically asked whether they believed the goals of the intervention, defined as following directions and completing school tasks and getting along with others, were important. Responses were coded as either important or not important.	“It is important for my child to learn to follow directions because they are a role model for my younger children.”	Important = 2 Not important = 1	Important = 5 Not important = 1
Procedures	Social validity	Responses coded in the procedures theme relate to the feasibility of the procedures. These comments were further divided into training (formal or informal) and nontraining-related comments, with formal training related to the full-day workshop that preceded the intervention phase and informal training related to the support provided by the coach during the intervention.	“Sometimes had to give reward before end of day because they would leave early, but child hadn’t completed day, felt like it was taking a shortcut. Sometimes the teaching assistant didn’t like pausing during classroom routine, wanted to keep things flowing.”	Training = 2 Nontraining = 4	Training = 9 Nontraining = 27
Effectiveness	Social validity	Respondents shared their perceptions as to whether the goals of the intervention had been met, and these responses were coded in the effectiveness theme. If the respondent indicated the child, the teacher, or other children in the classroom benefited from the intervention, the comment was coded as effective. Similarly, if a respondent expressed belief that the intervention was ineffective, or made statements leading one to believe the effectiveness of the intervention was questionable, the comment was coded in the ineffective subtheme.	“This helped the child to be more conscientious about their behavior, the visual cues were very helpful, the prompter gave him cues also to stay on task, the green card also helped the other children’s behavior. The targeted child became a model for the other children to follow.” “When he was going to have a behavior problem, he would see red and think about what he was doing.” “The personal philosophy doesn’t match mine. In Early Childhood Education training, a child needs “more encouragement not ‘prizes’ more encouragement. Saying ‘good job, you’re doing well,’ it’s too general.”	Effective = 4 Ineffective = 2	Effective = 39 Ineffective = 13
Satisfaction	Satisfaction	Although participants’ satisfaction with the intervention procedures or effectiveness was implied in many comments in the previously described themes, there were a few comments related to satisfaction that could not be coded in the pre-established categories. These comments were coded under this theme.	“The coach was wonderful; Julie helped to explain any confusion in the process and recognized frustration with me and the computer and was helpful in explaining things. She also gave good insight on why steps were done in a certain way.” “We will be advocating for parents and liaisons to use this program at home. We will use this program next fall with the new students.”	High = 2 Low = 1	High = 6 Low = 7
Stigmatization		Researchers were particularly interested in whether teachers or parents believed participating children were singled out, stigmatized, or labeled as a result of participating in the intervention.	“The whole class got involved in helping the targeted child succeed; they also celebrated with him when he was successful.” “The child didn’t seem to have any negative experiences. All the kids wanted Ramie to work with them.”	2	8
Recommendations	Implementation improvement	Not surprisingly, respondents offered specific suggestions to improve satisfaction, fidelity, or outcomes. In addition, some participants of the interviews communicated strategies they used that were not systematically endorsed by the training procedures, and these were also coded in the recommendations theme. Recommendations fell into two general categories: (1) formal trainings or informal trainings (that is, coach support) and (2) nontrainings.	“I think you should use a stopwatch rather than the class prompter or prompter CD because it was more reliable and mobile.”	Training = 3 Nontraining = 4	Training = 13 Nontraining = 19