Individualized education programs (IEPs) are a fundamental mechanism for making special education services unique for the child and for enhancing the developmental outcomes of children with disabilities. If written IEP goals diverge, however, from recommended practices, they might result in ineffective interventions. This study investigated the quality of Portuguese IEP goals written for 83 preschoolers with disabilities attending public preschool classrooms from 21 school groups from the District of Lisbon, Portugal. The quality of IEP goals was measured using the Goal Functionality Scale III (R. A. McWilliam, 2009) and the IEP/Individualized Family Service Plan Goals and Objectives Rating Instrument (A. R. Notari, 1988). Results showed that IEP goals were too broad, lacked functionality and measurability, and did not appropriately address skills within the context of natural routines and settings. Moreover, findings indicate that measurability was slightly higher the more severe the children's disabilities were and that autonomy (ie, self-help) goals were somewhat more functional and measurable than were social, language, cognitive, and motor goals. Findings raise concerns about the effectiveness of interventions based on such goals in enhancing children's developmental outcomes and suggest the need for clear guidelines on the development of effective IEPs and teacher training on developing high-quality goals.

The authors describe a training program designed to improve the knowledge and skills of early childhood interventionists. Within the context of using the Routines-Based Early Intervention approach, this training focused on improving the quality of goals and objectives on individualized plans, through the Routines-Based Interview. We structured the training around five face-to-face sessions and a follow up 3 months later. Here, we describe the development of the program, its content and methods, and the results on improvement of the goals and objectives with 80 professionals. These participants had completed the training, provided pre-training data, and provided post-training data. Results showed that the training described here had the desired very large effect: Quality ratings of goals and objectives increased by over three standard deviations. A Training Program on IEP/IFSP' Objectives Quality, 4A Training Program to Improve IFSP/IEP Goals and Objectives Through the Routines-Based InterviewPractices often do not match philosophies about family centeredness and functionality in early childhood intervention (ECI;Campbell & Halbert, 2002). Certain professional activities can, however, bring those philosophies to life. We propose a training program as a promising solution for bridging the gap between philosophy and practice.ECI has come to be defined as a family-centered endeavor, which means practitioners are expected to interact with families in a friendly and supportive manner, are expected to give families opportunities to make meaningful decisions about how ECI helps them, and are expected to address family-level needs (McWilliam, 2010a). Consistent with this approach has been an understanding that children learn in the contexts that their families and other caregivers, such as teachers, provide (Dunst, Bruder, Trivette, & Hamby, 2006). Along with this routines-based approach to conceptualizing ECI (McWilliam, 2010b), theorists have pointed out that functional child skills are those that help the child participate in everyday activities, those that promote a normalization of child and family life, and those that capitalize on the many learning opportunities afforded by home and group-care routines (Dunst, Hamby, Trivette, Raab, & Bruder, 2000). The training program described here was aimed at promoting these concepts of family centeredness and functionality among early childhood interventionists in the Lisbon area. The Portuguese context is briefly described below, but the utility of this training is probably universal. For example, even though much of the supporting research was conducted in the U.S., European notions and policies about the importance of function and participation are quite sophisticated. IEP and IFSP in PortugalIn Portugal, young children with disabilities may receive either early childhood special education (ECSE) or ECI services, depending on their age, type of child care Research on Actual Practices in ECIIn a literature meta-analysis on family-centered practices, Dunst, Trivett...

are not yet widespread in the ECI field. Families are still not full members of the team, when it comes to decision making regarding assessment, planning, and implementation (Almeida, 2009;Campbell & Halbert, 2002;Dunst, 2007;Pimentel, 2005).This consistent finding of incomplete adoption of effective practices might explain the lack of quality found in the goals and objectives on individualized education programs (IEPs) and individualized family service plans (IFSPs). Low quality is most noticeable in levels of specificity, functionality, and a focus on natural routines and environments (Bailey, Winton, Rouse, & Turnbull, 1990;Boavida, Aguiar, McWilliam, & Pimentel, 2010;Campelo & Nunes, 2008;Goodman & Bond, 1993;Grisham-Brown & Hemmeter, 1998;Jung & Baird, 2003;McWilliam et al., 1998;Pretti-Frontczak & Bricker, 2000; Sanches-Ferreira, Lopesdos-Santos, Alves, Santos, & Silveira-Maia, 2013;Yell & Stecker, 2003). The following examples illustrate goals and objectives of very low quality found in IEPs and IFSPs (Boavida, Aguiar, McWilliam, & Pimentel, 2010): (1) "enhance communication" , "fine motor development", "direct attention" or "follows a simple command" (vague and general);(2) "reproduce sequences of shapes and items", "buttoning and unbuttoning", "draw vertical lines", "jump on one leg", "stack 10 cubes" (lack of functionality).IEPs and IFSPs are considered essential mechanisms to guide early childhood special education (ECSE) and ECI, respectively, because they establish individualized goals and include methods for monitoring them. These goals and methods set up the conditions needed for children with disabilities to acquire important developmental skills (Wolery, 2000). Goals and objectives are, however, only as functional as the assessment that produces them In RBEI, to make the shift from child-focused assessment and intervention (Almeida, 2009;Campbell & Sawyer, 2007;Pimentel, 2005) to family centeredness, professionals are trained to interview families using the RBI. The RBI is a central feature of RBEI because it establishes both the relationship with the family and the focus of the intervention, giving the family a central, active, and decision-making role from the very beginning. The RBI is a semistructured interview, taking 2 hours, which includes specific procedures for eliciting rich and thick descriptions of child and family functioning in everyday routines. To conduct a successful RBI, interviewers must follow a protocol and use specific interviewing behaviors such as active listening, empathizing, asking in-depth follow-up questions, continuing the conversation, seeking evaluative and interpretative opinions, and managing time (McWilliam, 2010a(McWilliam, , 2010b. Professionals are trained in the RBI structure and specific interviewing behaviors with the RBI Implementation Checklist (McWilliam, 2010b). A well-conducted RBI allows interviewers to (a) learn much about everyday functioning of the child and his or her family members, (b) establish a positive relationship with the family, an...