Supporting Families of Children Living in Multiple Households

Abstract

Family-centered early intervention should include all caregivers. For some children, this may be caregivers that live in separate homes, providing a unique challenge to interventionists wanting to ensure the strategies taught are happening throughout all of the child’s contexts. One-hundred and ninety seven interventionists completed an online survey examining their perceptions of importance in sharing information across households and their strategies to do so. Despite interventionists expressing the importance of sharing information across caregivers (93%), only 12% work with both parents when working with families and 26% exclusively take measures to actively share information with the parent not present in the sessions. This may indicate potential barriers involving both parents and sharing information with them. Strategies to better incorporate parents into services when they live in separate homes are discussed.