Early Intervention Program Practices That Support Collaboration

Abstract

Partnerships between parents of infants and toddlers with special needs and their service coordinators are developed within the context of early intervention program practices that can either support or hinder effective collaboration. The purpose of this study was to explore parents' and service coordinators' perceptions of program practices that affected collaboration. A qualitative analysis of responses to open-ended survey questions from 397 parents and 226 service coordinators yielded five categories and two subcategories related to (a) program philosophy and climate, (b) service delivery (including options for service delivery), (c) teaming approaches, (d) administrative policies and practices (including quality of program personnel), and (e) community context. This research has important implications for early intervention administrators who wish to design and deliver quality services to infants and toddlers with special needs and their families.