Building Professional Capacity to Strengthen Parent/Professional Relationships in Early Intervention: The FAN Approach

Abstract

A strong relationship between parents and professionals is essential to successful early intervention. Yet, programs struggle to engage families in services. This article describes a successful pilot project to strengthen parent/professional relationships for families with children with disabilities living in a high-poverty urban area. Early intervention (EI) providers were trained to use the FAN (Facilitating Attuned Interactions) approach to increase their attunement to parent concerns and capacity to collaborate with parents during early intervention therapy sessions. Over the pilot project, the providers felt more empathic with parents, more collaborative, and more effective and satisfied in their roles. FAN is a promising approach and practical tool to strengthen relationships between parents and professionals in EI.