SERVICES FOR YOUNG-CHILDREN AND FAMILIES - EVALUATING INTERVENTION CYCLES

To advance the national early intervention agenda, priority must be as signed to the evaluation of services for families of infants and young children with developmental disabilities. This priority for evaluatio n rests on current considerations for accountability to families, acco untability to funding sources, and the need for program documentation. Evaluation of ongoing interventions involving home- and center-based services for infants, toddlers, and their families, however, needs to focus on questions different from those for empirical research on earl y intervention efficacy. To this end, eight questions pertaining to th e evaluation of clinical interventions can be viewed. Within the frame work of an intervention cycle, referral, assessment, intervention plan ning, service implementation, and follow-up are discrete elements defi ning a sequence of encounters of children and families with service sy stems. This article illustrates the use of the intervention cycle as a framework for evaluation of clinical interventions and identifies rep resentative measures and strategies appropriate for evaluation of each element of the cycle.