Research on early intervention models has identified significant gaps between professionals (Morrow et al., 2005), including:
- No systems to enable staff to inform each other of whom they were working with, or where and how – causing a lack of co-ordination and restricted information sharing.
- Lack of clarity of roles and responsibilities, no coordination of meetings and no single record-making system.
- Data about the same family held in different formats by different professionals.
The experiences of parents with children with disabilities have been extensively researched and documented.
The Early Support Program in the UK has found that many of the reported problems are due to:
- an unusually large number of services or agencies involved with families with children with disabilities
- no coordinated approach or shared aims
- poor exchange of information between the individuals or agencies in contact with a family
- additional pressure caused by the number of people in contact with a family, and/or the number of appointments a family has to attend at hospital clinics and elsewhere.
‘We see 20 specialists contributing to our child’s care. You tell your story over and over again. Sometimes it feels like a full-time job just communicating with them all.’
The SDN Community of Learners model seeks to address these gaps, and is influenced by the concept of a ‘community of practice’. This refers to the process of social learning that transpires when people who have a shared interest in a subject collaborate over an extended period to exchange ideas, find solutions, and build innovations (Wenger, 1998).
Key elements for this project include:
- A shared vision. This is central to effective collaboration. Establishing a common purpose with a shared viewpoint about children, families and service provision will be supported by a well-organised, flexible, agreed plan between all members of the team (Morrow et al., 2005).
- Parents are equal members of the team. Information needs to be made accessible in order to support the genuine and full participation of families in the development of services for their child (Limbrick, 2005).
- A common understanding and use of terminology. When this is established, language facilitates (instead of obstructs) effective teamwork and inclusion (Norris, 2006).
- Sharing knowledge and skills. Each member of the team needs to be willing to share knowledge acquire new skills. Core competencies include problem solving, conflict resolution and team consensus building (Kilgo et al., 2003).
- Understanding equality. This is essential for professionals to be competent at establishing respectful relationships and understanding each family’s particular culture and beliefs. It is important to recognise that families from minority ethnic groups can face additional barriers (cultural and linguistic) to accessing appropriate services (Dickins, 2004).
- Support for adults to adopt play-based strategies. ‘Effective adult mediation requires planning, is goal directed, and is systematically practiced. For young children, most interventions should (a) be used during play and other routines and activities, (b) be embedded into and distributed across activities … and (c) occur when they are contextually relevant. … Learning is promoted by structuring the social and physical aspects of the environment and using specialized intervention practices.’ (Odom & Wolery, 2003, p.168)
