Socially Valid but Difficult to Implement:Creative Solutions Needed Reaction to the Romer & Umbreit Article in JEI
Abstract
Caption: Journal of Early Intervention, 1998 Vol.21, No.2, 114-116 Copyright 1998 by the Division for Early Childhood, Council for Exceptional Children REACTIONS FROM THE FIELD Socially Valid but Difficult to Implement: Creative Solutions Needed Reaction to the Romer & Umbreit Article in \El PAM WINTON University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The primary focus of the Romer & Umbreit arti- cle is the finding that families value implemen- tation of a family-centered approach to service coordination. This is important information, and their article will be cited for providing the field with confirmation that families positively value family-centered practices. An interesting subplot to the article is related to the challenges of implementing family-centered service coor- dination and of variables such as caseload size, models of service coordination, and models of staff development that might have an impact on these challenges. These issues will be the focus of my comments. Caseload size. One wonders if it is possible to provide family-centered service coordina- tion to caseloads as large as those described in the study (40-70 families)? What happened to the nonparticipating families served by the three service coordinators during the course of this particular study? It is telling that