Home-Based Early Intervention with Families of Children with Disabilities

Abstract

Home visits are one mechanism for providing comprehensive services to young children with disabilities and their families, as required by Part H of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990. This study reports observational data describing the content addressed and the processes employed by early childhood special educators during home visits with children with disabilities, birth to 3 years of age, and their families. The extent to which home visits were individualized was examined in terms of available family resources and level of child's caretaking demands. Findings revealed that a model of child-focused intervention was most frequently implemented. Some evidence was found to indicate that the content of home visits was more likely to focus on the child when family resources were adequate, and that the role of the interventionist was more likely to be that of an observer when children had greater care-taking demands.