Chronic shortages of health, social service, and mental health professionals in rural areas necessitate creative partnerships in support of families. Cooperative extension professionals in Family and Consumer Sciences and community health nurses, who can bring critical skills to human services teams, are introduced as trusted professionals in…

A significant challenge in the field of early childhood special education is providing qualified personnel to serve young children with special needs and their families. Though many personnel development programs acknowledge the need for interdisciplinary preparation of diverse students who are culturally competent, faculty and trainees continue…

The Carolina Approach to Responsive Education is a comprehensive multidisciplinary educational program for preschool children and their families based on a general systems theory of development which includes such features as small groups, experienced staff, male role models, volunteers, medical care, playgrounds, field trips, home visits, and a…

Discussion of problems faced by early interventionists in working with families offers practical guidelines for developing effective collaborations between early intervention programs and families. These include establishing family-centered services and rules for clinician/parent communication, encouraging the family to be a genuine coparticipant,…

This text is on transdisciplinary team assessment of infants and toddlers at developmental risk and emphasizes both the dynamics (interpersonal strategies) and the mechanics (team assessment strategies) of teamwork. Emphasis is on assessment for the development of Individualized Family Service Plans. Chapter 1 reviews major developmental…

The article describes the development and implementation of a statewide (Vermont) interdisciplinary model for providing special education to learners with severe disabilities, as well as the role of a university-based center in facilitating systems change in early special education, recreation/leisure opportunities, vocational services, and family…

This guide assists in establishing a collaborative unit or a task group to deliver services to children and youth with serious emotional disabilities and their families. The guide is not intended to be an exhaustive manual, but does address the primary activities of professionals using interagency collaboration to establish comprehensive systems…

The goal of the Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH) Best Practices Project in Multnomah County, Oregon, is to improve the ability of early childhood professionals and partners to support and strengthen the emotional and relational development of young children with their families and communities. This report presents the activities for Year 2 of…

This final report describes the activities of Project Dakota Outreach, an early education program for children with disabilities designed to assist families living in Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Empowerment and Enterprise Zones in Texas, New York, and Minnesota. The major feature of the model is power-balancing, a concept…

This final report describes a pilot project, "Quality Service Provision for Infants and Young Children with Deaf-Blindness: A Mechanism for State Intervention Teams," developed and implemented at the University of Southern Mississippi. The project developed a model of an intervention team that provides intensive training and technical…

This report discusses the activities and outcomes of Project Coach Outreach, a project to encourage the use of best practices in early intervention for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities and to increase family-centered service options in Mississippi. Specifically, the project focused on the use of natural environments to include…

This report describes a five-year interdisciplinary training program in education and social service for the children, parents and university students at the Wayne State University College of Education Laboratory Nursery School and details the impact of the training model on six representative families enrolled in the nursery school. The basic…

The 21 papers in this collection address changes and reforms in the preparation of teachers and other personnel concerned with early intervention with children having or at risk for disabilities. The papers are: (1) "Ecological Perspectives on Personnel Preparation: Rationale, Framework, and Guidelines for Change" (Pamela J. Winton,…