Parent-Child Interaction—The Foundation for Family-Centered Early Intervention Practice

In their article, Baird and Peterson (this issue) propose that current practice in infant-parent interaction assessment and intervention may conflict with family-centered philosophy. Baird and Peterson suggest that if parents should decide against directly focusing on interactions with their child as a means of attaining desired developmental outcomes, the parents' preferences should be respected. In this article, we have attempted to respond to some of the major assumptions that underlie the early intervention model proposed by Baird and Peterson. We argue that their conceptualizations of both family-centered philosophy and intervention in parent—child interaction are inaccurate. We propose that the central purpose of family-centered philosophy is to support and enhance the effectiveness of parents as caregivers and primary influences on their children's development. Every intervention option, at some level, has the potential to affect parent-child relationships. Given that parents are the primary influences on their children's development, they can never have a real option not to focus on their interactions with their children. We argue that the information derived from the parent-child interaction literature is the foundation for developing intervention procedures that are truly effective at accomplishing the goals of family-centered philosophy.