Reaching consensus on the meaning of professional development is needed to integrate professional development across various sectors of the early childhood field, distinguish various professional development approaches, match learning opportunities to learner characteristics, and evaluate its effects on professional practices and child and family…

This article presents a vision for early childhood personnel preparation that could be achieved by grassroots public support for early intervention through "learning communities". It discusses three areas where changes are critical: collaboration among multiple partners at multiple levels, attending to diversity issues, and promoting family…

This response to Mahoney et al. (EC 623 392) by a faculty/researcher, a practitioner, and a parent of a child with disabilities, suggests that the term "parent education" be eliminated from the early-intervention lexicon. These four perspectives agree that the term is belittling to parents and does not offer any particular benefits to trainers,…

Assessment of the expectations of families with handicapped (N=9) and nonhandicapped (N=50) young children before and after the introduction of handicapped children into a day care center revealed both groups felt that greatest benefits were derived from exposing children to the "real" world and promoting acceptance of handicapped children.…

This article describes the role of family members in early intervention personnel preparation efforts, provides a rationale for family involvement, and offers guidelines and strategies for facilitating the participation of families of special-needs young children in personnel preparation, in ways that model collaborative family-professional…

The article proposes that conceptualizing intervention with young disabled children using the framework offered by the ABCX Model of Family Adaptation increases the likelihood that intervention will be planned and conducted in ways reflective of the normalizing approach underlying Public Law 99-457 (Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments,…

This article provides a rationale for developing communication/interviewing skills of early childhood interventionists, presents information on training in family interviewing and communication skills, describes perspectives of interventionists who have attended a workshop on the family-focused interview, and suggests strategies to help…