More Than “Try This at Home”—Including Parents in Early Intervention
Current state and federal recommendations encourage the delivery of early intervention services in a child's natural environment with typical communication partners (Individuals With Disabilities Education Act [IDEA], 2004). As such, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) often provide intervention services in homes and work closely with parents. However, only 30% of SLPs have early intervention expertise (ASHA, 2014) and 68% of SLPs report low-levels of competence in working with infants and toddlers (Campbell, Chiarello, Wilcox, & Milbourne, 2009). This may be due to the fact that the majority of graduate programs (60%) provide little or no training in early intervention (Bruder & Dunst, 2005). Working in early intervention is a challenging albeit rewarding task for even the most seasoned therapist. Given that the largest percentage of children served under part C of IDEA are children with language delays (Hebbeler et al., 2007), it is essential that SLPs working in early intervention implement effective strategies for both parents and children. The purpose of this paper is to: (a) explain why including parents in intervention is important; (b) discuss ways of including parents in early intervention; (c) examine strategies used to teach parents; (d) describe a method for teaching parents; (e) compare methods of measuring parent progress; and (f) propose future directions for research.