Routines-Based Interview Research Articles

Good Goals Matter

Functional plans in early childhood intervention need to include contextualized, meaningful, and measurable goals and include timelines and criteria for generalization. In addition, they must address children's and families' needs and priorities. The Routines-Based Interview has had a positive impact on the functionality of goals identified in the child's individualized plan. In Australia, where Noah's Ark Inc. is implementing the Routines-Based Interview and developing functional and participation-based goals, families' perceptions of child performance on functional issues and their satisfaction with the performance were measured. We analyzed (a) the functionality of goals, (b) changes in parents' perceptions of child performance and satisfaction after 6 months of intervention, and (c) the moderating effect of family goals. We found acceptable overall goal functionality, although measurement criteria are still a component that needs attention. Noteworthy changes in performance and satisfaction scores were found after the intervention, and the percentage of family goals moderated the influence of the context and meaningfulness of intervention goals on parents' perceptions of child's difference in performance. This effect was greater with more family goals on a plan.

The Routines-Based Model Internationally Implemented.

Professionals from 10 countries are implementing practices from the Routines-Based Model, which has three main components: needs assessment and intervention planning, a consultative approach, and a method for running classrooms. Its hallmark practices are the Routines-Based Interview, support-based visits with families, and a focus on child engagement. Implementers were interested in actual practices for putting philosophy and theory into action in their systems and cultures. We describe implementation challenges and successes and conclude that (a) models have to be adaptable, (b) some principles and practices are indeed universal, (c) we can shape excellent practices for international use, and (d) leadership is vital.

Eliciting family concerns and priorities through the Routines-based Interview

ABSTRACTBackground: Research has demonstrated that having an understanding of families’ everyday routines is important when planning interventions, yet the nature of the information revealed by families about their daily lives has been scarcely documented. The aim of this study was to examine the concerns and priorities of families with a child with a developmental disability elicited through the Routines-based Interview (RBI).Method: RBIs were conducted by early childhood intervention (ECI) professionals with 16 families with a child aged between 4 months and 5 years. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis.Results: Findings revealed that families were concerned about their child’s development and behaviour; made accommodations to everyday routines for their child; and reported priorities for the intervention.Conclusion: Tools, such as the RBI, are important to generate information that can assist ECI professionals to design interventions that are family-centred, contextualised, and embedded in everyday family life.

Family-Centered Early Intervention Visual Impairment Services through Matrix Session Planning

Early intervention visual impairment services are built on a model that values family involvement. Legislative provision for these services is found under Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997, the Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities Act. An early intervention professional is a teacher of visually impaired students or an orientation and mobility (OM Dote-Kwan & Chen, 2014; Petersen & Nielsen, 2005). We organized these ideas into several steps that could be taught to scholars with subsequent evaluation for fidelity of implementation. In this paper, we will describe the method we call matrix session planning, followed by a discussion of the advantages and challenges scholars experienced as they used the matrix session planning method with families. Description of the matrix session planning method Matrix session planning pulls together parent priorities, family routines, and identified strategies in a way that helps families and early intervention professionals outline a plan that can both highlight long-term goals and focus on what can be done today. First, the early intervention professional interviews the parents to learn about their concerns, hopes, and dreams for their child. We have found the Routines-Based Interview (McWilliam, Casey, & Sims, 2009) or the Parent Assessment of Needs from Parents and Their Infants with Visual Impairments (Chen, Calvello, & Taylor Friedman, 2015) to be helpful interview protocols. This professional also completes a functional vision assessment. From the interview and assessment, outcomes are identified. These priorities are entered in the left-hand column of a matrix with one outcome per row (see Table 1). Next, family routines are identified in one of two ways. The family may identify specific daily routines as being difficult for the child, or a desired outcome may naturally fit into a specific routine. Identified routines are listed across the top row of the matrix. Then, the parent and provider brainstorm solutions using the child's strengths, preferences, and adaptive needs. These solutions are based on information from the interview and assessment. The ideas are entered into the matrix in the corresponding row and column. …

Effects of an In-Service Training Program Using the Routines-Based Interview

The focus of this study is an in-service training program rooted in routines-based early intervention and designed to improve the quality of goals and objectives on individualized plans. Participants were local intervention team members and other professionals who worked closely with each team. This training program involved a small number of trainees per group, providing multiple learning experiences across time and various opportunities for self-assessment and monitoring. We investigated (a) the perceptions of the participants about the strengths and weaknesses of the training program, (b) medium-term outcomes of the training with a comparison group, (c) and variables associated with the quality of goals and objectives. This study involved training more than 200 professionals, and results support the effectiveness of the program in improving the quality of goals and objectives, showing the importance of the routines-based interview in producing that improvement.

From the Editor

From the Editor

Rasch Analysis of the Routines-Based Interview Implementation Checklist

The Routines-Based Interview (RBI) is useful for developing functional outcomes/goals, for establishing strong relationships with families, and for assessing the family's true needs. In this study, the authors investigated the psychometric properties of the RBI Implementation Checklist, conducted by 120 early intervention professionals, specifically looking at the probability of correct responses on the items as a logistic function of the difference between the person and the item parameters. We selected Rasch analysis (Rasch, 1980) for this study so we could answer questions about both how the measure performed and how the interviewers performed and we related these performances to one another. Results indicate that scores on the RBI Implementation Checklist were reliable. The checklist could possibly benefit from more difficult items to measure the true performance of the few people who had scores higher than the most difficult items and also from additional items that focus on the family.

Guiding Parents From Diverse Cultural Backgrounds to Promote Language Skills in Preschoolers With Language Disorders: Two Challenges and Proposed Solutions for Them

In providing culturally sensitive services for the families of young children with language disorders, the SLP is often confronted with a set of challenges. The first relates to avoiding making assumptions about the communication practices of any particular family, and is called the “avoid stereotyping” challenge. The solution offered is to repurpose the routines-based interview that is becoming more widely used in early intervention services (e.g., Bernheimer & Weisner, 2007; McWilliam, 2012; McWilliam, Casey, & Sims, 2009) in order to help the SLP determine (in a nonjudgmental fashion) the frequency and specific nature of interactions that occur in the home. When families do not display interaction patterns that evidence suggests foster language development and school success, how does the SLP both value the family's preferred practices and offer suggestions for interaction that may contradict them? The solution offered for this challenge, referred to as the “avoiding mixed messages” challenge, is to talk with parents about how such interactions will better prepare their child for the language demands of school. This is referred to as the “blaming the schools” solution.

A Training Program to Improve IFSP/IEP Goals and Objectives Through the Routines-Based Interview

The authors describe a training program designed to improve the knowledge and skills of early childhood interventionists. Within the context of using the Routines-Based Early Intervention approach, this training focused on improving the quality of goals and objectives on individualized plans, through the Routines-Based Interview. We structured the training around five face-to-face sessions and a follow-up 3 months later. Here, we describe the development of the program, its content and methods, and the results on improvement of the goals and objectives with 80 professionals. These participants had completed the training, provided pretraining data, and provided posttraining data. Results showed that the training described here had the desired very large effect: Quality ratings of goals and objectives increased by over three standard deviations.

Implementing and Preparing for Home Visits

The most common setting for early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families is the home. This article discusses home- and community-based early intervention and how the routines-based interview (RBI) can set the stage for successful home visits. It also addresses what has been learned about home visiting, what important issues face the field with respect to home visiting, and what still needs to be learned. These same issues are discussed for IFSP development.

The Routines-Based Interview

There are multiple ways to gather information from families receiving early intervention services (J. J. Woods & D. P. Lindeman, 2008). In this article, we discuss a specific strategy for doing this through information-gathering conversations with families. The routines-based interview (RBI; R. A. M