Surveying Early Intervention Providers to Identify Opportunities for Workforce Support to Strengthen Family-Centered Care

Abstract

Traditional provider-to-child models of early intervention (EI) service provision have been increasingly replaced by service guidelines that promote a broader family-centered approach to support improvement in the child's primary area of delay. These guidelines include working directly with caregivers and addressing needs of the family that might impact a caregivers' capacity to engage in developmentally supportive interactions with children (e.g., caregiver distress). Knowledge of provider skills, practices, and attitudes would inform efforts to broaden and enhance practice in line with these guidelines. Within an academic-community partnership to support EI, we surveyed 88 providers in Miami and Boston about their usual practice, perceptions of their skills, general attitudes toward evidence-based practices, and interest in specific training opportunities. Findings indicated that providers spent more time working directly with children than caregivers. Providers reported high interest in training to manage caregiver distress, support preschool readiness, and align work with family culture. Negative overall attitudes toward using evidence-based interventions and provider exhaustion were related to less interest in obtaining training in culturally responsive practice. Exhaustion also related to less interest in training on other topics that represent a broadened scope of care, including building warm parent–child relationships. Findings are informing efforts to design EI training opportunities to improve parent–provider relations, enhance parent–child interactions, and reduce caregiver stress.