Past (What I Knew Before)
Begin writing this section early
in the semester.
List the things you knew about
collaboration in Early
Intervention/Early Childhood
Special Education (whether facts,
myths, current or old
habits/practices)
1. Early interventionists work with
families most of time.
2. Early interventionists are one of
the team members to help families.
3. Early interventionists help
improve childrens development
with parents.
4. Early interventionists only serve
children under age 5.
5. Early interventionists work with
other processionals as well.
Present (What I Know Now)
Make this section a work in progress; fill it in as you
go through the semester.
List the things you now know (or will learn in this course)
about high quality collaboration as they relate to:
Supporting positive outcomes for young children in
their homes, classrooms/schools, and communities
Supporting families as competent caregivers,
informed decision-makers and empowered advocates
Working effectively with other professionals and
paraprofessionals (including conflict resolution)
Interagency and community collaboration
Week-1
DEC recommended practice provided guidance to early
interventionists about effective ways to work with family
and improve learning outcomes of young children.
Especially, teaming and collaboration section, giving us
the understanding to work with families and professionals.
Week-2
Learning the stages of consultation process is helpful
because it serves as catalysts for change and to share
accountability with consultees for the clients progress.
Week-3
Competent interpersonal communication is the basis for
successful collaboration. Interpersonally competent
individuals have sophisticated perspective-taking skills.
As early interventionists, we continually work with
different families. We have to use appropriate
communication skills suitable to the person and situations
involved. These skills can be built on past experiences,
professional preparation, and cultural identity.
Future (What I Will Do)
Write this section towards the end of the course as a
culminating reflection and call to action/continuous
improvement.
Knowing what you now know, how will you make
changes to your current or future work to improve
collaboration practices as they relate to:
Supporting positive outcomes for young children in
their homes, classrooms/schools, and communities
Supporting families as competent caregivers,
informed decision-makers and empowered advocates
Working effectively with other professionals and
paraprofessionals (including conflict resolution)
Interagency and community collaboration
What further supports will you need to practice high
quality collaboration, and how will you seek out those
supports?
* From colleagues, I can learn from them by discussing
questions related to families, dilemma they are facing, and
sharing experiences with each other.
* From research, I will keep absorbing knowledge from
reading research papers and use these skills as evidence-
based practices.
* From other professionals, the families we serve are
different. Each family has their situation and case. I would
seek the support from other professionals when the
familys need is not the expertise of mine.
Think beyond your own (individual) collaboration
practices. How will you influence positive changes within
your team or organization?
Week-4 * I will keep open-mined to my team.

Being a team member in the early intervention, an
effective teams has clear goals, shared responsibility, and
functional group processes, and leadership.
Week-5
Coaching is a voluntary, collaborative, and ongoing
process in which a highly skilled professional works with
family in order to improve childs development. Rating
myself on the coaching checklist fidelity is helpful for
reflecting the work that need to improve.
Week-6
* I will create the positive environment in the work.
* I will use the problem solving skills to make sure that
our team properly think through all the solutions to the
problem and help/ support needs of families and their
children.
How will you practice leadership in your field, regardless
of your job title or position (for instance, you may not be
in a supervisory role but what can you do to engage in
leadership)?

From consultation textbook, I learned the consultants and
consultees may be wondering in each stage of
consultation process and how I can provide information in
each step.
Week-7
During the process of collaboration, the conflict and
resistance could happen. The conflict management style
survey let me understand my preferred style for
responding to conflict. Negotiation or persuasion are two
constructive conflict resolution strategies.
* I can create a friendly relationship with our team
members.
* I can collaborate with other agencies and programs to
develop and implement assessment in community to
identify and refer children who need additional support
and evaluations.
* I can develop an evidence-based professional
development system that provides colleagues a lot of
resources and supports to ensure that we have the
knowledge and skills needed to serve our clients.

Week-8

Professional development is an important topic in every

profession. In early intervention, the new research and
updated law would be things we have learned. To learn
experience that lead to the acquisition of professional
knowledge, skills and dispositions and the application of
this knowledge in practice.

Week-9

Who are paraeducators? They work under the direction of

a teacher in supporting the education of students, often
those with disabilities. Sometimes, ethical dilemma would
occur in working with paraeducators. Collaboration
between professionals and paraeducators is needed.
However, it must be tempered with an understanding of
the difference in status between the individuals
participating and the context in which the interactions
occur.

Week-10

One example of coaching is a parent obtaining the support

of an early childhood intervention program. Before
coaching, parents understand coaching process helping
two parties (practitioners and parents) work effectively.

Week-11

Ethics in collaborative practice. As early interventionists,

we will face many ethical issues concerning our
interactions with families and professionals. The common
ethical issues are confidentiality, feasibility, and
accountability. Practitioners need to reflect on these issues
and clarify their own ethical standards regarding children
with disabilities and our own related professional
behaviors.

Week-12

Primary service providers are not always an early

interventionist. Primary service providers will consider by
the team of the professionals; which child situation would
be a factor to decide, for example, if the child need more
support from a speech language pathologist, the speech
language pathologist would be a primary service provider.
Reference

Buysse, V., & Wesley, P.W. (2005). Consultation in early childhood settings. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

Friend, M., & Cook, L. (2017). Interactions: Collaboration skills for school professionals. (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Division for Early Childhood. (2014). DEC recommended practices in early intervention/early childhood special education 2014.
Retrieved from http://www.decsped.org/recommendedpractices