Family-Centered Early Intervention for Infants and Toddlers With Disabilities

Early Intervention in Portugal: Study of Professionals’ Perceptions

“…The barrier professionals' attitudes and behaviors is not congruent with family-centered principles and practices that enable and empower families to make their own choices and decisions regarding the support process (Tomasello et al, 2010). It is also important to reconsider that the value given to the barrier categories related to the professionals' attitudes and behaviors coincide with the results obtained by Zhang and Bennett (2001) in their studies regarding professional beliefs about family-centered practices.…”

“…The importance of in-service training on familycentered practices is proven, by several researchers, as a valuable framework for assuring the quality of the support and service in EI (Hiebert-Murphy et al, 2011;Jung & Baird, 2003;Mahoney & Bella, 1998;McBride et al, 1993;McWilliam et al, 1998;McWilliam et al, 2000;Serrano, 2007). This recommendation is given equal importance in the study by Tomasello, Manning, and Dulmus (2010), where they refer to the fact that training and regular supervision are critical to "enhance the capacity to provide family centred services" (p. 169).…”

“…This recommendation is given equal importance in the study by Tomasello et al (2010), where they refer to the fact that training and regular supervision are critical to "enhance the capacity to provide family-centered services" (p. 169).…”

Raising a child with disability and dealing with life events

“…This is the case in Tina's story where she expresses that 'I will never recover, there is no escape from the constant bereavement'. While several studies have established that parents of children with a disability, particularly mothers experience more stress, higher levels of anxiety (Esdaile and Greenwood, 2003;Estes et al, 2009;Seymour et al, 2013) increased sadness, a sense of denial and guilt (Ergu¨n and Ertem, 2012), and there is a need for health and social care professionals to proactively support families and listen to and value what they say and their knowledge of their child as this is essential to an effective working relationship (Blacher et al, 2005;Keen, 2007;Tomasello et al, 2010). Within Tina's story, she often felt isolated and alone and left feeling that the professionals avoided addressing the issue of her coping 'it surprised me that nobody could see my pain'.…”

Early intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina- a description of a model implemented in Zenica-Doboj Canton

“…Empowerment of families through education and support groups. As can be seen from the above, the Center aims to provide comprehensive family centered care which proved to be efficacious (Tomasello et al, 2010).…”