The Kansas Division for Early Childhood
Spotlight – 2007 Mini Grant Project
Parent Empowerment in Early Intervention
Five parents who have experienced success in early intervention share their stories in a new video, Parent Empowerment in Early Intervention. The video was created for viewing by parents who are new to Part C services. Jane Eby, Research Assistant for Rainbows United, Inc., produced the video in collaboration with Rule Productions in Wichita in early 2007. Funding was provided by a mini-grant from KDEC and Wichita State University. The goal of the project was to capture a glimpse of early intervention from the parent’s point of view: first-hand accounts of parent discoveries, developing self-confidence and self-efficacy, learning to trust service providers, and transformation through the IFSP process. All of the parents received their early intervention through Rainbows United, Inc.
Eby will use the video in her current dissertation research for her Ph.D.
in Community Psychology at WSU. The research question is whether parents
new to early intervention services who watch this video will self-report
as more empowered than parents who do not watch the video. The
measures of parent empowerment that will be used are the Family Empowerment
Scale (Koren, DeChillo & Friesen, 1992), and the Family Outcomes Survey
(Bailey, Hebbeler & Bruder, 2006), both used with permission. Once
the results of the research are published, Eby plans to distribute the video.
Parent empowerment is a goal of early intervention. Collaboration
between service providers and parents empowers both. Empowerment theory
conceives a process in which individuals first become empowered in their
own situation and then proceed to help others and to produce change. Community
psychology, social work, and organizational perspectives of empowerment
include a person’s group identity as one of the necessary ingredients
that lead to empowerment. The project proposes that parents need to
have an orientation to their identity and status as parents of children
with special needs in order to develop in their role as advocates, teachers
and change agents.
The original intent of the video project was to provide a video to orient
parents to the content of the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). Thisgave
way to the current production, as we realized that a peer-to-peer video
would have more impact and be more valuable for parents who are new to the
early intervention system.
Jane Eby can be contacted at jleby@wichita.edu