Early intervention program practices that support collaboration

Partnerships between parents of infants and toddlers with special needs and their service coordinators are developed within the context of early inter vention program practices that can either support or hinder effective colla boration. The purpose of this study was to explore parents' and service coo rdinators' perceptions of program practices that affected collaboration. A qualitative analysis of responses to open-ended survey questions from 397 p arents and 226 service coordinators yielded five categories and two subcate gories related to (a) program philosophy and climate, (b) service delivery (including options for service delivery), (c) teaming approaches, (d) admin istrative policies and practices (including quality of program personnel), and (e) community context. This research has important implications for ear ly intervention administrators who wish to design and deliver quality servi ces to infants and toddlers with special needs and their families.