Institutionalizing Culturally Responsive Practices

Although most of us working in early intervention don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it, we are powerful agents within the system who can impact how it functions. It may not feel like you are an especially powerful part of the system–after all, practitioners are accountable to federal and state laws and the policies dictated by our employers.

The last component of the updated framework for early intervention is to institutionalize culturally responsive practices. Once we’ve had the opportunity to learn, enact, reflect on, and improve our culturally responsive practices, it’s time for us to work to establish these practices as the norm in the field. This establishment of practices may feel overwhelming or unrealistic. I know that when I was practicing early intervention, I never had time to think about how much power I had within the EI system. After all, I was just one person, and I was accountable to federal and state laws and the policies set by the agency I worked for. When I thought more deeply about it, I realized that over my ten years as a developmental therapist, I worked with more than 325 families. This background in EI meant that even if I hadn’t done this research or written this book, I still had the power to make decisions that determined the quality of those 325 families’ early intervention experience. That’s a lot of impact for just one person.