Family and staff perceptions of the Individual Family Service Plan

An ethnographic approach was used to determine how families of young special needs children and the staff of an early intervention program perceived the process of developing an Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP). With the emphasis placed by Public Legislation 99-457 on family involvement when treating these children the study was organized to better understand the environment as a culture where families and professionals interacted. A naturalistic investigation was considered the most appropriate way to gather these data. Five families were followed over a nine-month period where they were observed during all aspects of the Early Intervention (EI) program and were interviewed about the IFSP document and process. Another five families served as a focus group in order to validate the data. The data revealed that perceptions were associated with decision making, whether the IFSP was child or family focused, and how families and staff related based on their assumptions about reach other\u27s roles. The results are discussed in terms of how cultural imperatives construct the way early intervention programs operate and how they must be taken into consideration if families are to be fully incorporated into the education of their disabled child