A Relational Ethics Approach to Engagement in Early Intervention: Integrating Trust, Context, and Clinical Standards

Purpose: Family-centered practice and caregiver coaching are foundational to early intervention (EI) service delivery, yet these contexts also present unique ethical challenges. Although the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Code of Ethics (COE) provides essential professional guardrails, it does not always capture the relational complexity of home-based service delivery. This article explores how relational ethics, with its emphases on mutual respect, attentiveness to power dynamics, reflexivity, and ethical humility, can complement the COE in guiding speech-language pathologists (SLPs) practicing in EI. Method/Approach: This article examines how relational ethics can inform ethical clinical decision making by examining relational ethics literature, reflective accounts from graduate student clinicians in the Facilitating Infant Responsiveness to Stimulate Talking Program, and illustrative case examples from EI practice. Conclusions: Relational ethics deepens the COE by situating ethical action within relationships, emphasizing cultural responsiveness, and reframing competence to include boundary setting, humility, and authentic collaboration with families. Integrating relational ethics with the COE supports SLPs in making ethically sound, family-centered, and socially valid decisions. Implications for Practice: Embedding relational ethics within EI practice equips SLPs to listen, connect, and grow alongside families, ensuring care that is not only clinically effective but also relationally and culturally grounded.