This newsletter theme issue focuses on the value of supervision in developing personnel in programs for infants with disabilities and their families. The first article, titled "Learning through Supervision and Mentorship To Support the Development of Infants, Toddlers and Their Families" (Emily Fenichel), is an essay explaining the thinking of the…

The Specialized Training of Associates in Rural Alaska (STARS) is a 3-year project providing preparation to early intervention associates in rural Alaska and services to infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. Evaluation methods and results are reported. Appendices describe the 24 training modules and list the program's…

Argues that collaboration between Head Start and early intervention programs can improve accessibility to high quality child care and supports needed to reach and maintain self-sufficiency for low-income families of children with disabilities. Discusses how these systems can develop trusting collaborative relationships, increase affordability of…

This final report describes, Project Trans/Team, a 3-year infant inservice training project designed to provide training and technical assistance to programs that serve children from birth to 3 years of age who have disabilities, are developmentally delayed, or are at risk. The project provided training to 20 programs and 282 professionals in six…

This report describes results of an evaluation of respite care programs and crisis nursery programs for children with disabilities, based on survey forms received from 81 programs and site visits to selected programs across the United States. The survey of crisis nursery programs and the survey of respite care programs gathered data on amount of…

Summarizes the results of a needs assessment survey of 186 disability service coordinators of Head Start programs in one region. Three important challenges were identified: serving young children with emotional-behavior issues, working with families, and working with community institutions. Implications for staff training are discussed. (Author/CR)

In 1992, the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) funded four projects for a three-year period to increase the participation of higher education faculty in inservice training for personnel in early intervention. These projects included: the Southeastern Institute for Faculty Training (SIFT), the Northeastern Early Intervention Faculty…

This commentary on "The Effects of Family-Centered Service Coordination: A Social Validity Study" (Romer), discusses the challenges of implementing family-centered service coordination and variables such as caseload size, models of service coordination, and models of staff development that might have an impact on these challenges. (CR)

This report discusses policies and practices for family-directed child evaluation and assessment under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The scope of the report includes practices across the early childhood spectrum, from birth through 5 years. Commonly used terminology is defined. Issues discussed include: the primacy of…

This final report describes the activities and outcomes of a project designed to prepare early interventionists and preschool teachers to serve children with vision and hearing impairments. The purpose of the project was to build upon existing early childhood special education and sensory impairment programs across two universities, the University…

A survey of 397 parents of infants and toddlers with disabilities and 226 early intervention service coordinators (SCs) was conducted to identify necessary factors for successful SC-parent collaboration. Surveys indicated that interpersonal skills were critical for successful collaboration. A microcounseling model involving behavioral consultation…

This final report describes activities and achievements of the Community Inclusion Project for Young Children with Disabilities, a New York State project which provided outreach training to early intervention staff, community early childhood staff, and families on the inclusion of young children with disabilities in early intervention, special…

This final report describes the activities of Project Dakota Outreach, an early education program for children with disabilities designed to assist families living in Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Empowerment and Enterprise Zones in Texas, New York, and Minnesota. The major feature of the model is power-balancing, a concept…

Information on the implementation of services for preschool children with special needs and their families, acquired from a survey of 60 states and jurisdictions is presented. The information is organized into nine sections reflecting major state activities related to the Part B--Section 619 portion of the Individuals with Disabilities Education…

This final report describes achievements and activities of the Trans/Team Outreach Project, a Virginia project to replicate a model of inservice training designed to help early childhood intervention teams move toward more family-centered, transdisciplinary service delivery for young children with disabilities and their families. Trans/Team…