Beliefs About Participation-Based Practices in Early Intervention

Researchers have noted divergent findings with respect to the relationships of practitioners’ beliefs and their implementation of recommended practices. With Q-sort methods, this study examined practitioners’ beliefs about practices in early intervention with samples of current practitioners ( n = 211) and preservice students ( n = 142). Findings indicated that practitioners rated participation-based practices as less strongly held beliefs when compared with several other early intervention practices, and students’ responses revealed beliefs that were in contrast with participation-based beliefs. In addition, results showed that practitioners’ beliefs were more similar to respondents from institutions of higher education than were the preservice students.