Date of Award:

5-1996

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Psychology

Committee Chair(s)

Richard N. Roberts

Committee

Richard N. Roberts

Committee

Susan Crowley

Committee

Lani Van Dusen

Abstract

This study reports the characteristics of home visitor training based on the results of a national survey of nominated best practice home visiting programs that service children with disabilities and their families. Two hundred thirty-six programs were nominated by their state's director of Maternal-Child Health and/or their state's Part H Coordinator as community-based programs that have had success integrating home visiting services into their community's overall system of care for children eligible for Part H services and/or special health care needs. The return rate of the survey was 85%, and these 193 programs serve as the basis for this study. Results include information on topic areas on which home visitors received preservice and inservice training (i.e., atypical child development, community-based services, cultural competence), the amount of training home visitors received (i.e., hours of preservice and inservice training), and how training practices compare to what experts in the field view as recommended practices. The results indicate that the majority of program directors provided their home visitors with preservice and inservice training. The results also suggest that agencies that only employed professional home visitors tended to provide more training than those agencies employing only paraprofessionals. The results of this study indicate that a program's model of service delivery did not predict the amount or type of training home visitors received. The discussion includes recommendations that are offered to directors of home visiting programs.

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