Parents' and professionals' perceptions of the implementation of family-centered practices in child assessments.

PURPOSE: To determine the degree to which early intervention professionals and families agreed on whether specific family-centered practices were implemented in specific child assessments and which practices were viewed as important to include in future child assessments.
METHOD: A self-rating instrument was used to survey 134 early intervention professionals (across a variety of disciplines) and 58 family members in triads (2 professionals and 1 family member for each assessment) after they had participated together in a child assessment. Participants were asked to identify across 41 family-centered practices whether the practice was implemented (actual practice) and would be important to include in future assessments (ideal practice).
RESULTS: Agreement between families and professionals and between professionals was high for both actual practices (69% and 78%, respectively) and ideal practices (82% and 84%, respectively). Some practices were frequently implemented, whereas others were seldom implemented. Both professionals and families viewed most of the practices as ideal. However, an implementation gap was seen on almost half of the practices between what families and professionals viewed as actually implemented and what was ideal implementation.
CONCLUSIONS: Although a number of family-centered practices were implemented in the child assessments studied, the results pinpointed specific practices that professionals and families agreed should be changed. The results can serve as a guide for enhancing the implementation of, and continued investigation into, family-centered practices in child assessment and can add key information toward the identification of evidence-based practices.