Family Ecology

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Family-Centered Practices
Support-Based Early Intervention and Developing
Ecomaps Session 3
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Early Intervention Training Center for Infants
and Toddlers With Visual Impairments FPG Child
Development Institute Produced in collaboration
with R.A. McWilliam (2002)
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Objectives

• After completing this session, participants will
• describe why all high-quality early intervention
  practices are considered support contrast
  support and services and describe the three
  types of support that should be provided to
  families by early interventionists.
• 2. discuss the importance of focusing on family
  strengths.
• 3. describe why a TVI in early intervention is
  interested in family members, friends, and
  other natural supports.

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Objectives

• demonstrate the completion of an ecomap and
  describe its advantages.
• describe how teachers of children with
  visual impairments (TVIs) work in collaboration
  with other professionals in the early
  intervention system to provide support to
  families.

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• Early intervention is best described as a system
  of supports that enhances the capacity of
  families to meet the special needs of their
  children with disabilities.

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Services versus Support

• Services specific, discrete activities
  intended to meet specific, discrete needs
• Support providing or coordinating resources
  to meet a familys needs

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Early intervention is the process of providing
support, not just services.

• Describing early intervention simply as the
  provision of services is limiting and inaccurate.
• It suggests first that the professionals
  activities, rather than the familys own actions,
  account for progress and positive change
  within a family and the child.
• It leads to the notion that every need requires
  a service.
• It leads to the belief that more is better in
  terms of number of services and frequency of
  contacts.

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Support-Based Intervention

• McWilliam and Scott (2001) identified
  three primary types of support provided by
  early interventionists
• emotional support,
• material support, and
• informational support.

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Emotional Support

• Emotionally supportive, family-centered
• practitioners have the following characteristics
• positiveness,
• responsiveness,
• orientation to the whole family,
• friendliness,
• sensitivity,
• competence with and about children, and
• competence with and about communities.
• McWilliam et al., 1998

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Material Support

• Families cannot carry out interventions if their
• needs for food, shelter, and security are not
  met.
• Sometimes children with VI require specialized
• materials and environmental modifications such
• as task lighting, optical aids, or brightly
  colored
• objects to enhance participation in daily
  routines.
• Examples
• Equipment and supplies
• Information about
• resources, including
• financial resources

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Informational Support

• Families whose child has a visual impairment
• report concerns about the future and a need
  
• for information about
• child development,
• childs visual condition,
• services and resources, and
• specific strategies and skills.
• 
  Leyser Heinze, 2001

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Support-Based Intervention Versus Child-Centered
Therapy

• Support-based intervention
• Interventionist works with family and child one
  hour each week, sharing informational support
  with parent. Parent works with child multiple
  times during the day, 7 days each week.
• Child learns from repeated interactions spread
  out over time.

• Child-centered therapy
• Interventionist works with child one hour
  each week
• Young children do not generalize from therapy
  sessions to real life, and they do not learn in
  massed trials or intensive lessons.

Child-centered therapy can provide families with
informational support if families are actively
engaged in the process. The family can provide
intervention throughout the day and week.
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TVIs and Support-Based Intervention

• Expertise and knowledge are shared with
  parents and other team members, enlisting their
  participation in interventions throughout the
  week (Correa, 2002).
• Sharing techniques and the rationale for
  interventions with parents and encouraging
  parents to work with the child increases the
  amount of support the child receives
  (McWilliam, 2000).

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Families are the key to effective early
intervention.

• Family members are the childs primary
  sources of nurturance, lifelong advocates,
  and key decision makers.
• Family members know the child better than anyone
  else.
• Family members are the ones who will be
  most effective at implementing suggestions.
• In order to implement family-centered support
  effectively, professionals must look for
  strengths in families.

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Focusing on Family and Child Strengths

• When emphasis is on strengths rather than
  deficits, the family is empowered.
• Fewer professional services may be required when
  a strengths-based approach is used.
• Collaboration between family and service
  providers is enhanced when professionals
  recognize and value existing strengths.
• The knowledge, skills, and talents of both the
  child and family should be considered in
  intervention planning and implementation.

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Support-Based Early Intervention and the Family
Ecology

• In addition to support from professionals,
  families obtain support from relatives and
  friends, neighbors, coworkers, and groups
  with which they are associated.
• The system of supports that families have
  is part of the family ecology.
• By knowing about the family ecology, the
  TVI can make suggestions that ensure
  that family priorities are met with existing
  resources whenever feasible.

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Whats the best time to ask about the family
ecology?

• If family members are interested, the initial
• intake visit is the preferred time to learn about
  
• the family ecology. This can be postponed,
• however, if
• the family seems uncomfortable sharing this
  personal information so early in the
  relationship, or
• the intake procedures preclude learning about the
  family ecology.

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Purposes of the Intake Visit

• Establish rapport with the family.
• Convey information about the program.
• Determine familys primary concerns.
• Inform family of their rights.
• Secure permission to conduct
• assessments.
• Learn about the
• family ecology.24

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Methods of Learning About the Family Ecology

• Interviews and questionnaires
• Observation
• Community resource mapping
• Ecomaps

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What is an ecomap?

• A visual depiction of the familys informal,
  formal, and intermediate system of supports
• Completed during informal dialogue between family
  and early interventionist or TVImay take about
  15 minutes
• Preferably completed during intake visit, but can
  be completed whenever family seems comfortable
  with sharing the information

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Steps in Mapping the Family Ecology Informal
Supports

• Write the names of the people who live in the
  home in the center of the map. Draw a box
  around those names.
• Above the family box, write the names of
  relatives and friends who can be counted as
  supports. These are informal supports. Draw boxes
  around them and connect to the family box
  using
• bold lines for strong support,
• medium lines for medium support, and
• dotted lines to indicate stressful relationships.
  
• (Note a relationship can be supportive and
  stressful
• at the same time.)

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Informal Supports
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Steps in Mapping the Family EcologyFormal and
Intermediate Supports

• Write the names of agencies, professionals such
  as doctors or therapists, and other individuals
  in boxes for formal supports below the family.
  Again, connect these boxes with the family via
  solid or broken lines.
• Write the names of coworkers, other colleagues,
  and group associations to either side of the
  family. These are intermediate supports and are
  connected by solid or broken lines as well.
• A more thorough outline of the steps taken in
  developing an ecomap are found in the handout
  Understanding the Family Ecology.
• 
  McWilliam,
  2001

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Informal and Formal Supports
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Review How to Develop an Ecomap

• Family in center
• Informal supports above
• Formal supports below
• Intermediate supports on sides
• Thick lines indicate more support,
• thin lines indicate less support
• Dotted lines indicate stress

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TVIs and Collaboration

• TVIs should provide family-centered support
• while ensuring that the impact of visual
• impairment on child development is
• recognized and addressed by each early
• intervention team member by
• sharing vision-related information and resources
  through consultation, and
• assisting other team members in understanding
  issues related to vision and development.

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