The quality of intervention is clearly dependent on the collaboration, specificity and appropriateness of the intervention plans generated with the family. The creation of a functional and meaningful intervention plan that fits within the child's and family's day requires accurate information and involvement from all team members, especially the family. Linking a routines based assessment to routines based intervention can be accomplished by the team when they focus on the child and family, rather than specific deficits. The child's outcomes must reflect the family's priorities, not items on a test or arbitrary developmental tasks identified by a provider. Further, the teaching and learning opportunities must be planned to correspond to the partners, locations, preferences and interests of the child and the family, not the interventionist. While essential, team planning is often rare due to problems with time, distance, lack of resources, complexities of funding, and differing philosophies on who are the most appropriate team members for a child's needs. Given these realities, interventionists must develop strategies for communication and collaboration to assure effectiveness in both the planning and implementation process.

"How To" Implementation Strategies

• Use of community resources is encouraged with multiple agencies and disciplines included in a collaborative plan guided by family's identification of resources and priorities. The families guide the plan not the service providers. Providers must facilitate family choice and decision making as a team, and develop ongoing communication strategies to ensure planning and progress monitoring for the child and family.
• Intervention activities occur within the context of the family, i.e. their time schedules, activity preferences, toys, materials, and natural interactions. Providers incorporate or adapt materials, toys, and objects readily available within the child's environment. Naturally occurring child and careprovider interactions are emphasized to that support teaching and learning across settings over time.
• Communication is an integral job responsibility with time and resources allocated for completion of assigned duties for all team members.

Support Materials

These support materials have been provided in PDF (Portable Document Format) and may be downloaded by clicking on the document name. If you would like a copy of the materials e-mailed to you, please contact Katrina Cripe to request a copy.

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