A support approach to early intervention: A three-part framework

This article is about a model far viewing and conducting early intervention in a way that deemphasizes professional services and emphasizes the suppor t that professionals can provide. Current approaches to infant toddler serv ices have not evolved in the past 15 years to the extent we thought they wo uld. In 1985, Dunst(1) rethought early intervention, and the next year the first comprehensive early intervention legislation was passed. Both P.L. 99 -457 and researchers such as Dunst suggested that attention to families was the appropriate direction to take and was warranted both theoretically and empirically. It is possible that many programs concentrated so much on rep lacing clinic-based operations with home-based services that they overlooke d the major purpose of early intervention, which was to enhance the compete nce and confidence of children's caregivers so children had the greatest li kelihood of developing to their maximum potential. This speculation is fuel ed by our observation that many home-based approaches are little more than clinical sessions dumped onto the living room floor. Conceiving of early in tervention primarily as a mechanism for providing support is an alternative to conceiving of early intervention as a mechanism for providing services.