This study contributes to the discussion of appropriate parent and therapist roles in early intervention by comparing the costs and effects of two programs for speech-disordered preschoolers: a home parent training program and a clinic-based program with low parent involvement. The posttest results indicated that the children in the home parent training group performed at least as well as those in the clinic-based group on measures of speech and language functioning as well as on a measure of general development. On several of these variables, the home parent training group performed significantly better than the other group. Results of the cost analysis indicated that, excluding the value of parent time, there was no meaningful difference in program costs. The implications of this study are that parents can be given significant responsibilities in early intervention and that program administrators have a viable option of using parents as a substantive support to a program. In addition, findings support the need for therapists to be trained to work with parents as well as with the child.

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This study longitudinally compares the costs and language functioning, the primary area of delay effects of two alternative forms of early inter-for all subjects, as well as on measures of general vention that differed with respect to the roles development and family functioning. The assumed by parents and professionals: a home comparable longitudinal effects of the two interparent training intervention and a clinic-based, ventions examined in this study support the low parent involvement intervention. Results of viability of programs that offer options to parfollow-up testing 42 months after the initiation ents and the need for interventionists to be of the interventions indicated that the home par-trained broadly enough to be able to assume a ent training group performed as well as the variety of roles and to provide a range of serclinic-based group on measures of speech and vices.Parents' and professionals' roles in early intervention are in flux as programs are adapted to meet the demands of rising enrollments, budget cuts, and changing expectations related to effective practices. When attempting to determine the most efficient use of professionals' limited time, many program staff stress the superiority of approaches that emphasize parent responsibility in the provision of services. As a result, parents* roles are expanding to include being trained to provide developmental intervention to their child, while professionals, who were most likely trained to work directly with children, are primarily working with adults, facilitating parents-as-therapists programs or training other professionals in the context of a transdisciplinary approach. Recommended early intervention practices, such as those that emphasize parent involvement in service provision, may be informed by a variety of sources, including empirical research, maxims, and values and beliefs about what is ethically or morally right (Bailey & Wolery, 1992; Shulman, 1986). Although empiri-