Barriers Perceived by Professionals in Family-Centered Early Intervention Services: A Systematic Review of the Current Evidence

Abstract

Family-centered services are the recommended early intervention approach to develop and deliver services for children with disabilities and their families. This systematic review aims to identify and highlight what barriers service providers in family-centered early intervention perceive that prevent them from providing high-quality services focused on the family and the child's overall well-being. We identified 37 articles that met the selection criteria of the first initial search of 1858 articles. These studies provided insights from both service providers and families. The identified barriers were categorized into eight dimensions: family, child, knowledge, and application of the approach/model, professional beliefs, natural environment, service coordination, working conditions, and current legislation. The main barriers identified were family barriers, insecurities perceived by professionals and difficulties in their ability to provide services, changes in their attitudes and behaviors when they perceive that they are losing their role as experts, lack of knowledge and application of specific practices, and lack of skills needed to engage primary caregivers in natural settings. These findings should inform policy implementation at local and state levels in countries where family-centered service is established in early childhood programs.