In the last decade there has been a trend towards family-centered intervention for children with disabilities in Sweden. However, most professionals are trained in child-focused intervention. The shift in the focus of intervention has made it necessary to train professionals in services for children with disabilities in a family context. This article discusses inservice training of professionals in habilitation services in family centered practices. The training has been implemented on an interdiciplinary team basis in the context of ordinary services. Inservice training is described as one of several options for improvement activities within an organization. Implications for educational needs assessment, preparatory work before training, implementation and evaluation of training, when the moderators of change are integrated into ordinary services is discussed.
A central tenant of early childhood intervention (ECI) is collaboration between professionals and the caregivers of children receiving these services. There are limited studies on caregiver perceptions of collaboration in ECI teams particularly in resource-limited countries. Sixty-four caregivers participated in this study by completing a questionnaire on their perceptions of collaboration in ECI services in South Africa. The questionnaire survey was administered in a group setting by a trained research assistant who was proficient in the Setswana language. The results revealed that caregivers have a good understanding of collaboration in ECI services. However, collaboration, in relation to family-centered practices, appeared to be undervalued by caregivers. These results are discussed and the limitations of the study as well as future recommendations are outlined.
The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) offers a universal language of codes to document childhood functioning. The ICF-CY Code Set for Infants with Early Delay and Disabilities (EDD Code Set) has been developed to facilitate the practical application of the ICF for children. The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of the EDD Code Set by exploring the linkage between ICF and children's assessment reports. We reviewed 30 Comprehensive Assessment Reports (CAR) for children with developmental delay (DD), aged 9-34 months in a joint evaluation center. Meaningful concepts in compulsory and supplementary sections of the CAR were identified and linked to the EDD Code Set. Linkage was measured by (a) number of linked codes and (b) average of code-only and code-with-qualifier percentages. Content in the CAR was linked to 72 of the 82 EDD codes with more codes linked from the supplementary (71) than the compulsory section (58). The largest proportion of linked codes was activities and participation (85%). The EDD Code Set can be used to examine the ICF linkage of pediatric assessment reports and guide future development or revision of pediatric documentation and participation-based intervention.
In family-centered intervention, one important issue is to support families' different ways to manage stress. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether professionals encourage positive coping strategies in families of children with disabilities. Data (videotaped planning meetings and interviews) from 5 families enrolled in intervention programs were used. The data were analyzed deductively by applying theoretical concepts of 4 types of positive coping. Goal-directed problem-focused coping was the most frequently used type of coping, together with spiritual beliefs and practices. Professional encouragement of families' own strategy to solve problems occurring in everyday life must focus not only on explicit problem solving but also on the use of supplemental coping types.