Professionals' and Families' Perceptions of Family-Centered Practices in Infant-Toddler Services

The purposes of this study were to determine the extent of family-centered practices, professionals' and families' values about the practices, and the extent to which selected characteristics of participants explained variance in the practices. Professionals (N = 198) and families (N = 118) completed two questionnaires. Professionals tended to report more family-centered typical practice than did families, but ideal practices generally did not vary between groups. Agency type and the Setting x Experience interaction predicted professionals' ideal-practice scores and their self-ratings of the frequency of implementing family-centered practices: Home-based services were most predictive of frequent reports of these practices. The frequency with which families reported receiving these practices was predicted by the amount of time the family had been in early intervention: The longer, the more frequently families experienced the practices.