Teacher-Child Interaction Training: A Pilot Study With Random Assignment

• We present the rationale for adapting an empirically-supported treatment for use in the classroom to target teacher skills and student disruptive behavior.
• We examine the effect of this teacher-training program, Teacher-Child Interaction Training (TCIT), on teacher skills, teacher distress, teacher satisfaction, and student behavior in general education classrooms.
• We evaluate TCIT as compared to a no-training control group in kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms.
• We find evidence of teacher skill acquisition, reduced distress, and satisfaction with the training in TCIT classrooms.

Teacher-Child Interaction Training (TCIT), adapted from Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), is a classroom-based program designed to provide teachers with behavior management skills that foster positive teacher-student relationships and to improve student behavior by creating a more constructive classroom environment. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate TCIT in more classrooms than previously reported in the literature, with older children than previously reported, using random assignment of classrooms to TCIT or to a no-TCIT control condition and conducting all but two sessions within the classroom to enhance feasibility. Participants included 11 kindergarten and first grade classroom teachers and their 118 students from three urban, public schools in Manhattan, with five classrooms randomly assigned to receive TCIT and six to the no-TCIT control condition. Observations of teacher skill acquisition were conducted before, during, and after TCIT for all 11 teachers, and teacher reports of student behavior were obtained at these same time points. Teacher satisfaction with TCIT was assessed following training. Results suggested that after receiving TCIT, teachers increased rates of positive attention to students’ appropriate behavior, decreased rates of negative attention to misbehavior, reported significantly less distress related to student disruptive behavior, and reported high satisfaction with the training program. Our study supports the growing evidence-base suggesting that TCIT is a promising approach for training teachers in positive behavior management strategies and for improving student disruptive behavior in the classroom.