The exchange of information between family members and service providers is a central feature of early intervention services and is integral to the development of an individual family service plan. Early intervention professionals pressured by timelines and documentation requirements either may resort to a directive style of communication that is not matched to the interaction or learning style of the family members or may ask general interview questions that do not provide sufficient information for effective intervention planning. Neither approach offers the family members a clear depiction of their role on the team. A framework and 5 strategies that support a reciprocal process for providing and receiving information while promoting family members' understanding of intervention in their everyday routines and activities are described. These strategies, developed and tested in the field within 5 federally funded research, demonstration, and outreach training projects, offer tools for service providers to gather and give information cognizant of different adult learning preferences.

The combined effects of double-prompting and booster session procedures on the social behavior of four socially withdrawn preschool children were investigated. A multiple baseline design across subjects was employed to evaluate these procedures. Double-prompting and contingent social praise involved having the classroom teacher prompt and praise the initiations and responses of the subjects and their peers to one another. The behaviors that were prompted — play organizers, shares, and assists — had previously been shown to be effective in setting the occasion for a positive response from peers. When maintenance of increased target initiations was not forthcoming, booster sessions were used to maintain subject initiations during follow-up. The results indicated that (a) the intervention procedures increased the subjects' play organizer, share, and assist initiations, (b) subjects' and peers' responses to one another's initiations did not have to be prompted, (c) there were collateral increases in nontargeted social initiations of the subjects, (d) there were smaller increases in the initiations of peers, (e) booster sessions functioned to increase initiations temporarily and (f) subjects' extended interactions with peers increased during intervention and remained high regardless of whether or not booster sessions were applied during follow-up.

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