HOW RESPONSIVE IS EARLY INTERVENTION TO THE PRIORITIES AND NEEDS OF FAMILIES

This study assessed the type and scope of services provided to familie s participating in early intervention programs and examined whether ea rly intervention services were responsive to families' concerns. From 63 programs, 357 mothers responded to a printed questionnaire. Results indicated that (a) early intervention programs provided significantly higher levels of family services related to child information, family instructional activities, and systems engagement as compared to perso nal/family and resource assistance; (b) services were rated more favor ably in home-based programs and center-based programs with home-based components than in programs with only center-based services; (c) the s ervices families reported receiving were positively correlated with th eir ratings of the desirability of services; (d) families' needs for s ervices were significantly higher than the level of services they repo rted currently receiving; and (e) the types of services families recei ved depended in part on the location in which they resided. No signifi cant relationships were found between characteristics of children and the types of services families received. However, the pattern of relat ionships between family characteristics and family services suggested that families with optimal patterns of family functioning were more li kely to receive services than were families with indicators of risk or dysfunction.