You’ll recall that a deficit-based mindset is one in which we explain unequal outcomes as a result of a group or person’s characteristics or circumstances instead of looking at the larger institutional and structural factors at play.  One of the ways that this presents in early intervention is in the way that some EI providers talk about family engagement.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, my research partner and I surveyed EI providers about their experiences moving from in-person home visits to virtual visits (Childress & Schumaker-Murphy, 2024). We were surprised by the number of service providers who talked about the increase in parent engagement once EI service moved online. Respondents said things like “families have had to step up and take responsibility [during sessions],” “telepractice forced more [family] involvement,” and  “for some families, it has been a wake-up call and has resulted in far more participation.” A deficit mindset about families is evident in the way EI providers wrote about families being “forced” to be more engaged in sessions or with online sessions bringing a “wake-up call” that made families more engaged.

Conversely, you can read a more asset-based way of framing the increase in family engagement during online sessions in the statements made by providers who wrote things like  “[online sessions] give parents a more active role” and “moving to telepractice, for the most part, has made visits even more productive as it has really encouraged parent-child interaction and parents carrying through strategies.” One provider said, “It has given me opportunities to observe and coach through situations where I may have jumped in before learning from the family in the past.” These providers’ statements were not deficit-based. Their statements indicated that they saw the move to virtual EI sessions as an opportunity for families to be empowered to be more engaged rather than obligated families to be engaged in the EI sessions.

Reflective Questions:

1. When an EI provider makes a statement like “families have had to step up and take responsibility” or refers to the move to online sessions as a “wake-up call,” what does that indicate about their beliefs about the families they serve?
2. What impact do you think that providers’ deficit mindsets about families’ engagement have on their clients’ EI outcomes?
3. How do you think that the experiences of the families who worked with the provider who said that telepractice “forced” more family engagement differ from the experiences of families who work with the provider who said, “It has given me more opportunities to learn and coach”?
4. Ibraheem shared that he wasn’t always completely honest with his EI providers about the amount of EI “homework” he had done with his son between sessions. He was worried that if the EI providers thought he didn’t care about Ayden’s development, they wouldn’t care either.  How do you think his fear is related to deficit mindsets among early intervention providers?
5. One of the findings of this study was that EI providers felt that they improved their coaching skills as a result of the move to online services.  Providers reported that they had fewer one-on-one interactions with children and couldn’t do as much modeling to teach caregivers strategies to use to support their children’s development.  EI providers also reported giving more written resources to families than they had prior to the pandemic.
   1. How do you think that these changes in provider behavior impacted caregiver engagement?
   2. What do you think may have been happening during the pre-pandemic in-person sessions that impacted caregivers’ levels of engagement?