EA Basic Training (0-5 years)

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Authorized training

All coders need to attend an authorized training and be certified by the method developer; it is not acceptable for one person to attend in order to train others in their lab or facility. Self-training and/or training others (without being an authorized trainer) are not acceptable practices. The most common and streamlined way that professionals obtain the authorized training is through a hybrid format, involving online training which has been uploaded to a virtual platform as well as “live”, interactive zoom consults with the developer, followed by a reliability test.

Reliability test/certification

This is to assess inter-lab reliability (i.e., between you and our standard scoring). Once you pass the test, you will have achieved a minimum level of training in EA Basic.  Every effort is made to make sure professionals enrolled in the program become well trained and certified and the success rate is very high. An exact reliability is not provided to you, however. *Once you are EA certified, it is wise not to assume that you can start coding your sample.* It is ideal if you can train with at least one other professional at the same time so that you can check inter-rater reliability on your own sample after the reliability test/certification provided to you.  The idea of a reliability test can evoke anxiety in the EA User, but please know that this part of the process is very loose and more focused on making sure that we interact around “correcting your mistakes”, rather than catching your mistakes and denying you certification.  The goal is that you make your mistakes at this stage, learn from it, and then evaluate your own sample or your cases at your agency in the most accurate and well-informed way.  The developer “sticks with you” until you gain expertise and can be certified.

Your inter-rater reliability partner during training

Part of the reason for ‘group’ (a minimum of 2 people) training is so that you can check inter-rater reliability. If you break up the group, then each individual moves at his/her own pace, which defeats the purpose of forming the group for reliability purposes. Therefore, please know that your moving faster than your partner(s) means that you will then need to wait for your partner to finish his/her process. You can of course go faster than some other members if a particular period of time is better for you, but you still need to get inter-rater reliability with at least one other member of your team and on your own sample in the very early part of your EA coding project.  For practitioners (and especially solo practitioners), this phase is not always possible, and hence, the reliability test portion above is particularly meaningful.

Inter-rater reliability partnering with a previously certified coder from your lab/facility

Important to note is that if one coder has been trained many years ago and has not re-calibrated with us, it is important for that professional to do so before embarking on reliability checks with you OR at the very early stages of that process. Some refresher work on EA is needed every year so that coders remain calibrated (and none of this work involves a reliability test per se), merely consultations that move up the level of skill so that potential misunderstandings about the system are clarified in a timely way and the skill set continues to grow.  It can also be self-study with the new 4.1 edition, that has extensive yellow highlights that provide “hand holding”.  Again, for practitioners (and especially solo practitioners) this is not always possible at their facility and so the developer (and associates) are always ready to help out.