A recent article puts forth a new aspirational framework—the Developmental Systems Approach—to guide the creation of an inclusive and comprehensive system for early childhood intervention. Drawing on advances in the fields of child development, intervention studies, and program implementation, the framework centers positive
family interactions as a facilitator of children’s development. The framework posits that family characteristics and resources shape the quality of family interactions, including parent-child relations, family experiences, and family environments, and that in turn, those family interactions shape children’s competence and goals. The framework spells out a practice model that describes how this approach would be implemented when engaging in early intervention, focusing goal setting, interventions, and evaluation toward improving the quality of family interactions. While the framework is applied to early intervention specifically, the author notes its applicability to other early childhood settings too (e.g., child care).
