Abstract
This article addresses the need to refocus the view of the natural environment as a family-chosen placement for early intervention services and suggests ways to achieve this end. Psycho-ecological theories are used to broaden the conception of the natural environment and illuminate possibilities for early intervention that utilize community and home resources while respecting the wishes of the family. As a result, families are enabled to choose the settings in which services will be provided, while meeting the needs of the child according to the spirit of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
THE MOST RECENT amendments to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA; Public Law 105-17) stipulate that early intervention services should be provided in a child's natural environments, which the law defines as "settings that are natural or normal for the child's age peers who have no disability."1 Although section 303.12(b)(2) of Public Law 105-17 also stipulates that placement in natural environments should be made "to the maximum extent appropriate to the need of the child,"1 Bricker2 correctly points out that this qualifying statement is often overlooked and that the term natural environment has mistakenly become synonymous with inclusion. Her position is that this interpretation is wrong, and that the individual needs of children and families should come before policy.
While we would agree with the position taken by Bricker,2 we would assert that it is necessary to translate this point into practice in a meaningful way. Simply, family-centered practice should provide the hallmark for decision making regarding the planning and placement of young children with disabilities. Families need to be empowered to decide for themselves what constitutes natural environments. Therefore, families should determine their natural settings, and the services that are responsive to their needs and priorities.3 While the intent of Public Law 105-17 in defining natural environments was to facilitate family-centered services, in practice this has not necessarily been true. Too often service providers develop an array of service options without regard to the specific concerns of the family. As Turnbull and Turnbull4 suggested a number of years ago, families are as individually different as children. Not to consider these differences is antithetical to family centeredness.
Thus, the challenge faced by early intervention providers is to refocus on the provision of services in settings that are natural for the child and family, at a given time, while ensuring that the experiences received in those settings are rich, meaningful, and facilitative of the child's development. The purpose of this article is to suggest ways in which professionals, adhering to a family-centered philosophy, can utilize behavior setting theory to enable families to identify natural environments that are meaningful to them.