This study examined the longitudinal association between fathers’ early involvement in routine care-giving, literacy, play, and responsive caregiving activities at 9 months and maternal depressive symptoms at 4 years. Data for 3,550 children and their biological parents were drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data set. Analyses in a structural equation modeling framework examined whether the association between father involvement and maternal depressive symptoms differed for families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and for families of children with other disabilities or delays from families of children who were typically developing. Results indicated that father literacy and responsive caregiving involvement were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms for mothers of children with ASD. These findings indicate that greater father involvement may benefit families of children with ASD and highlight the need to support and encourage service providers to work with fathers.

With a representative sample of U.S. children born in 2001, growth curve modeling was used to investigate the association between father-child involvement and the developmental status of the child. Three groups of children, which varied by timing of developmental delay diagnosis, were compared for father involvement trajectories. These groups of children were compared with each other as well as to a group of children without developmental delays. Group comparisons indicate many more similarities than differences, and implications for service providers are discussed.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine early intervention (EI) service providers’ perceptions of the roles played by fathers in services, as well as their perceptions of the barriers that limit fathers from being engaged in the services provided for families of children with disabilities. A total of 511 EI service providers participated in an online survey. Findings revealed a significant gap between EI providers’ perceptions of the impact fathers can have on their children with disabilities and their perceptions of how useful it is to target fathers for involvement in EI services. In addition, several barriers were identified by participants that limit their ability to successfully engage fathers in the services they provide to their children and families. Results are discussed in terms of implications for future training needs of EI providers.

This article provides a description of service learning implemented in an introductory special education course focused on the culture of disability. Collaborating with liaisons from five community service organizations, students provided services to individuals with disabilities in a variety of projects across two semesters. Communication and collaboration at all phases of the project were essential to ensuring that service learning was salient to the organization and meaningful to the students. The students presented a final report about their service-learning project and individually submitted a paper reflecting on their experience. Pre- and post-ratings of students’ perspectives of the culture of disability were gathered. Students reported increased knowledge related to course content, and all participants reported satisfaction with the projects. Strategies that proved successful in assisting students accomplish their project goals are discussed. Recommendations for the use of service learning in personnel preparation of future special educators are presented.

Current clinical diagnosis of autism Spectrum Disorders (aSD) occurs between 3 and 4 years of age, but increasing evidence indicates that intervention begun earlier may improve outcomes. Using secondary analysis of the early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data set, the current study identifies early predictors prior to the diagnosis of aSD at 4 years for approximately 100 children. Children with aSD were compared with children with other disabilities and children who were typically developing. Multinomial logistic regression analyses identified limited unique characteristics (e.g., self-regulation and sleep patterns) at the 9-month time point. a majority of the differences in communication and language, mental/ cognitive function, motor function, social interaction, and self-regulation were found at the 2-year time point. Implications for research and practice are presented.