Interdisciplinary Personnel Preparation

Abstract

Interdisciplinary personnel preparation in early intervention is viewed by many as critical to the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and to providing exemplary services to children with special needs and their families. Recent work has shown that the extent to which students take part in interdisciplinary preservice preparation predicts the degree to which they will provide interdisciplinary, collaborative services once they graduate. Despite the fact that the early intervention literature provides various descriptions of interdisciplinary personnel preparation programs, little information is available documenting the extent to which program graduates utilize the interdisciplinary practices targeted in these programs. The current study used a self-evaluation methodology to survey graduates of 2 interdisciplinary early intervention specialization programs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The results indicted that the graduates were utilizing most of the targeted practices in their current job settings and did so on a fairly frequent basis. In addition, when the graduates were asked about the extent to which they were exposed to specific interdisciplinary practices (eg, interacting with students from other disciplines during coursework), the opportunities within their specialization program were rated as occurring much more frequently than within their traditional program. The results have implications for programs offering (or seeking to offer) interdisciplinary specializations. The follow-up methodology may be beneficial as a model for documenting the use of specific interdisciplinary practices by graduates.