Parents of young children participating in either Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part C early intervention or IDEA Part B-619 preschool special education programs were surveyed to obtain a consumer science perspective of the practitioners who were the children's primary service providers. Parents were asked to make…

Infants with visual impairment often require additional interaction from adults to reinforce behaviors that lead to competency at mealtimes, but parental and professional confidence in teaching these skills is often limited. In the following collective case study, the authors, a speech/language pathologist (S/LP), occupational therapist (OT), and…

An exploratory case study was undertaken to examine child and caregiver outcomes in a diverse sample of 21 infants/toddlers with severe disabilities who received services from an urban, Part C program where caregiver-focused intervention was emphasized. Purposive sampling and mixed methods were used to collect data on child developmental change,…

Psychometric and utility studies on Social Emotional Assessment Measure (SEAM), an innovative tool for assessing and monitoring social-emotional and behavioral development in infants and toddlers with disabilities, were conducted. The Infant and Toddler SEAM intervals were the study focus, using mixed methods, including item response theory…

The term parapatric speciation, borrowed from biogeography, is used as a metaphor for describing and illustrating a little acknowledged change in the field of early intervention that occurred at the time of the passage of the Education of the Handicapped Act Part H early intervention legislation. The term refers to the formation of a new species…

The most common setting for early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families is the home. This article discusses home- and community-based early intervention and how the routines-based interview (RBI) can set the stage for successful home visits. It also addresses what has been learned about home visiting,…

The extent to which the influences of family-systems intervention practices could be traced to variations in parent-child interactions and child development was investigated by meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM). MASEM is a procedure for producing a weighted pooled correlation matrix and fitting a structural equation model to the…

An exploratory case study was undertaken to investigate the perspectives and experiences of six early intervention providers as they adopted and implemented a collaborative consultation approach to home visiting in urban neighborhoods. Survey, semistructured interview, and focus group methods were used over a 2-year period to obtain data about…

In great demand are efficient mechanisms for delivery of evidence-based interventions for promoting social-emotional development and early positive behavior of all children, and especially for those with or at risk for disabilities. The rise of Internet use has created potentially new avenues for intervention delivery, which, when paired with the…

The current study investigated the perceptions of families regarding the inclusion of siblings of children with disabilities by early intervention providers. Eighty-seven respondents who had a child enrolled in one state's Part C early intervention program completed the survey. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed.…

This review traces the evolution from 1971 to the present of a national technical assistance (TA) program to support the creation, expansion, and improvement of services for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with special needs. From its beginning as a TA resource for demonstration projects, to linking outreach projects' expertise with state…

This article includes descriptions of a process used to conduct practice-based research syntheses and the manner in which synthesis findings are used to inform and evaluate early childhood intervention practices. The main focus of a practice-based research synthesis is the unbundling of an intervention practice to identify those practice…

Authentic assessments are naturalistic methods to obtain functional, contextual information relevant to learning in routine activities. Seven focus groups were conducted with 73 practicing Part C early interventionists to gather their reports on authentic assessments. Participants reported various ways of applying authentic assessment methods,…

The authors explored frequently cited articles across four peer-reviewed journals in early intervention (EI) and early childhood special education (ECSE). The Social Sciences Citation Index was used to examine journal articles from 1994 to 2005 in "Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Infants and Young Children," the "Journal of Early…

National estimates of characteristics of maltreated infants and report of an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) and an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) 54 months later are presented. The study was based on 1,196 infants from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. Measures of neurodevelopment, language, and cognition were…