2018 Janson Piloting a novel capacity building tool with early intervention practitioners ADVANCE PRE PROOF.pdf

Abstract

Background: Despite the increasing uptake of family capacity-building theory in past decades, there is a dearth of practical tools to support its implementation in Early Intervention, alongside traditional discussion or assessment-based goal setting. We therefore expanded on earlier co-design with parents raising a child with disability or developmental delay, and tested a practitioner experiential training.

Method: Thirty practitioners trained with a new tool, designed to engage participants to create an inspiring vision from which they develop authentic goals for their child, their family and/or themselves, and visualise their active part in achieving their goals.

Results: Practitioners rated this experience favourably and registered significant training impact and post-training increases in empowerment.

Conclusions: Training to facilitate such novel visioning and planning experiences offers practitioners a unique opportunity to build family capacity, disrupting a recognised power imbalance by empowering families with agency and setting the foundations for more effective family-driven relationships with practitioners.