Making Best Practice Our Practice Reflections on Our Journey Into Natural Environments

摘要

This article focuses on one early intervention team's transition from a multidisciplinary center-based model to a transdisciplinary, natural environment service delivery model. The team consisted of an occupational therapist, physical therapist, speech and language pathologist, and early intervention teacher. Each team member began with different backgrounds, skill sets, and beliefs about how early intervention services should look. The team agreed upon basic principles of best practice for early intervention, but the level of comfort for implementation varied greatly among team members. Over the last 2 years, the team has learned about themselves and the art of delivering family-centered practice to families with young children with disabilities. This is a reflection on 6 lessons learned as they moved out of the classroom where equipment, materials, and physical surroundings defined services and determined roles, and moved into the homes of the families where services and roles were ever-changing and unpredictable. Finally, implications for personnel preparation, including professional development and preservice training programs, are discussed.