Family Intervention Essay

Taking a family-centered approach to intervention means including the family in all aspects of the intervention process: defining and explaining problems, goal setting, designing interventions and evaluating outcomes (Björck-Åkesson, Granlund & Olsson, 1996; Granlund, Wilder & Almqvist, 2013). This approach has been shown to lead to positive developmental outcomes for children with disabilities (Björk-Åkesson, Granlund & Olsson, 1996).

Background

Interventions

Interventions are often only focused on the child with disabilities (Bornman & Granlund, 2007), but can also be focused on families, groups or even society (Granlund, Wilder & Almqvist, 2013). Interventions in early-childhood are becoming more family-based. Therefore, changes in the

These naturally occurring learning opportunities often happen without warning and combine to create the life experiences for a child (Dunst et al., 2001). However, for a child with a disability, these opportunities often occur less frequently and require more planning by caregivers (Bornman & Rose, 2010). One type of natural learning opportunity is found in the routines and rituals of families (Dunst et al., 2001). When these family routines and rituals are reliable children are provided with a sense of consistency and are able to predict how their behaviors will influence their environments, and this results in positive behavior outcomes (Dunst, Trivette, Raab & Masiello, 2008).

Participation

Broad-based interventions aim to increase participation in everyday life activities across environments, in home, school and community settings, for children with disabilities (Bornman & Granlund, 2007; Bornman & Rose, 2010). Creating broad-based interventions can present a challenge for collaborative teams as they must first identify the daily activities in which a child with disabilities is able to participate (Bornman & Rose, 2010) and whether the environment acts as a facilitator or barrier to the child’s participation (King,

His cerebral palsy is moderate and only his lower body is affected, spastic diplegia. He currently does not show any other symptoms that are sometimes seen with cerebral palsy. For example, he has no vision or speech impairment, epilepsy or learning disabilities. He lives with his mother and father and two siblings, a four-year-old sister and a sixteen-month-old brother.

The first steps in the intervention process are to identify and explain the problem. “A problem is defined as the perceived difference between the existing state and a desired state within a specific context” (Björk-Åkesson, Granlund & Olsson, 1996, p. 328). During an Ecocultural Family Interview (Weisner & Coots, 1997), the mother discussed the family’s routines and identified two main areas that she thought were problematic. This is important part of the intervention process because “no intervention, no matter how well designed or implemented, will have an impact if it cannot find a slot in the daily routines of an organization, family, or individual” (Bernheimer & Weisner, 2007, p. 199). Therefore, finding places within the family’s daily routine to imbed interventions is