Assessing the Emotional Quality of Parent–Child Relationships Involving Young Children with Special Needs: Applying the Constructs of Emotional Availability and Expressed Emotion

Sensitive, responsive, and dependable relationships are key to providing the support and encouragement all children need for optimal development. Unfortunately, parents and their young children with special needs often face behavioral challenges and life stressors related to the children's delays/disabilities that can interfere with the development of emotionally positive relationships. This study explores the usefulness of two standardized measures, the Emotional Availability Scales (EAS; Z. Biringen, J.L. Robinson, & R.N. Emde, 1998) and the Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS; A.B. Magana‐Amato, 1993), for assessing the emotional quality of relationships between parents and their children aged 3 years or younger with special needs. To date, neither measure has been used extensively with this population. Each of the 38 participating dyads included a child with an identified delay/disability. Results of the EAS suggest that it is a viable measure for assessing the relationships of parents and their young children with special needs. The FMSS results, though less clear, suggest that with certain limits, it also is a viable measure for use with this population. This study can inform the debate about the need to integrate early childhood mental health practices into all child/family services and to provide appropriate training to meet the growing demand for such relationship‐based services.