Abstract
Interdisciplinary personnel preparation in early intervention is viewed by many as critical to the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and to providing exemplary services to children with special needs and their families. Recent work has shown that the extent to which students take part in interdisciplinary preservice preparation predicts the degree to which they will provide interdisciplinary, collaborative services once they graduate. Despite the fact that the early intervention literature provides various descriptions of interdisciplinary personnel preparation programs, little information is available documenting the extent to which program graduates utilize the interdisciplinary practices targeted in these programs. The current study used a self-evaluation methodology to survey graduates of 2 interdisciplinary early intervention specialization programs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The results indicted that the graduates were utilizing most of the targeted practices in their current job settings and did so on a fairly frequent basis. In addition, when the graduates were asked about the extent to which they were exposed to specific interdisciplinary practices (eg, interacting with students from other disciplines during coursework), the opportunities within their specialization program were rated as occurring much more frequently than within their traditional program. The results have implications for programs offering (or seeking to offer) interdisciplinary specializations. The follow-up methodology may be beneficial as a model for documenting the use of specific interdisciplinary practices by graduates.
THE BELIEF that interdisciplinary personnel preparation in early intervention is beneficial to students, programs, and ultimately, to the children and families served, has strong theoretical and legislative support. Indeed, numerous references in the literature refer to the importance of interdisciplinary preparation of personnel to work with young children who have or are at risk for disabilities and their families (Brown & Rule, 1993; Davis, Thurman, & Mauro, 1995; Sandall, McLean, & Smith, 2000; Stayton & Bruder, 1999; Thorp & McCollum, 1994; Whitehead, Jensien, & Ulanski, 1998). In addition, the literature provides a number of descriptions of programs, benefits, and barriers to preparing personnel to deliver effective services to young children. Little data are available, however, documenting the outcomes derived from these interdisciplinary activities (Stayton & Bruder, 1999; Straka, Losardo, & Bricker, 1998). As noted by Straka et al. (1998), only the most general type of evaluation data related to program efforts and student outcomes are typically available. Yet, evaluation data regarding the efficacy of personnel preparation programs are critical if programs are to respond effectively to policy makers at all levels (Winton, 1996). Thus, in planning, implementing, and evaluating interdisciplinary personnel preparation efforts, programs must focus on all 3 aspects of program development to ensure overall quality. Moreover, if policy makers are to recognize the benefits of interdisciplinary preparation and provide support for these efforts, personnel preparation programs must not only evaluate their programs, they must also disseminate more complete evaluation data to the early intervention field at large.