Rooted in research
Ready to use

CW-FIT, originally Class-Wide Function-related Intervention Teams, started in elementary classrooms in Kansas and has scaled into a two-tier system used in math, science, English, social studies, and STEM rooms K-8. Tier 1 runs class-wide and is built to increase academic engagement. Tier 2 supports students who don’t respond to Tier 1, with function-based individual supports. The model is grounded in nearly 30 peer-reviewed studies showing increases in student academic engagement, decreases in disruptive behavior, and increases in teacher use of praise. CW-FIT materials, training, and coaching are available to schools through a combination of free, access-controlled downloads and quote-based training and coaching engagements. KU received an $8 million federal grant in 2023 to scale the program nationally through a rural expansion partnership.

I-Connect is a customizable self-monitoring system developed at Juniper Gardens and led by Dr. Howard Wills, who also leads CW-FIT. Self-monitoring has decades of research behind it as a way to help students stay on task, follow expectations, and track their own behavior; I-Connect updates that long history with a mobile app that students can use during the school day. A teacher, mentor, parent, or the student themselves sets a goal and a check-in interval, then the app prompts the student to answer yes or no throughout the day. The data is stored and turned into progress reports that can be shared with the people supporting the student. I-Connect runs on Apple, Android, Microsoft, and Mac, and it’s free to download. The team provides implementation guidance for districts, classrooms, and home use through iconnect.ku.edu, organized in four stages: exploration, installation, initial implementation, and full implementation. Research shows benefits for students with learning and attention needs, students on the autism spectrum, students with IEPs, and students in general education, community, and workplace settings.

IGDIs have been used since the early 1990s and are one of the longest-running assessment systems at Juniper Gardens. The system covers four areas of development: communication (ECI), movement (EMI), problem solving (EPSI), and social interaction (ESI). A newer variant, ECI-A, supports children diagnosed with or at risk for autism. Each assessment takes about six minutes and is built so any adult who works with young children can become a reliable assessor through training. Programs choose how to use IGDIs: train staff to administer and score, or use the IGDI Scoring Service, where the IGDI team scores videos uploaded by the program. Once certified, programs get free access to the IGDI Data System for storing scores, monitoring progress, and using the MOD decision-support tool. IGDIs have been used across the U.S. and in Australia, Italy, Ecuador, Portugal, and other countries — nearly 125,000 assessments have been entered into the data system for over 35,000 children.

Juniper Gardens Children’s Project has run from a small storefront at 13th and Sandusky in Kansas City, Kansas since 1964. We’re part of the University of Kansas Life Span Institute and one of the longest continuously funded research centers on child development in the country. Our work spans early communication, early literacy, behavior support, social-emotional learning, autism intervention, and family engagement, with a constant focus on children from communities that have been under-served by mainstream research and practice. Researchers at Juniper Gardens have developed tools and programs used today across all 50 states and in several other countries. Research to Real World is our newest project: a single place where the practitioners, families, and leaders who need what we’ve built can actually find it.

Literacy Bridges is led by Dr. Suzanne (Suzy) Myers, Co-Director of the KU Center for Research on Learning, and Dr. Trina Spencer, Director of Juniper Gardens Children’s Project. Suzy has led more than $34 million in funded research on educator professional learning, adaptive coaching, and adolescent literacy, including the Kansas Blueprint for Literacy work. The Literacy Bridges program brings that research base to schools, districts, and individual educators through structured online courses, a library of free downloadable resources for classroom use, and customized coaching and professional learning engagements. At launch, two online courses are available for direct purchase, with a downloadable resource library and several quote-based coaching and professional learning options.

PC-TALK is built around eight communication-promoting strategies adults can use with children birth to age 5: arranging the environment, commenting and labeling, asking open-ended questions, following the child’s lead, imitating and expanding, giving praise and positive attention, providing choices, and fill-in-the-blank. The strategies are designed to be used together throughout the everyday activities adults already do with young children, in classrooms and at home. PC-TALK includes a free strategy manual, activity cards, posters, self-checks, handouts, and videos, available in English and Spanish. For programs that want to take it further, the team offers training, the PC-Obs observation system, TPITOS training, and ongoing community-of-practice engagements. Most public materials sit at talk.ku.edu and will continue to live there; RTRW links out for the full library.