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Parent-Infant Interaction Project (PII Project)

NIDRR Field Initiated Program: Development (CFDA: 84.133G-2)

Parent-Infant Interaction Project (PII Project): Abstract

The right to marry and raise children, long recognized as a fundemental human right, is often denied to individuals with intellectuall disabilities (The ARC, 2002). Even as their numbers grow, parents with intellectual disabilities continue to be an "invisible and underserved population" (Booth & Booth, 1993, p. 459). Parents with intellectual disabilities are often under close scrutiny and may lose custody of their child due to suspicions of abuse or neglect (The ARC, 2002). They often lack the individualized supports necessary for successful parenting. While individualized supports can enhance interaction between parents and their child and improve the child's developement (i.e., attachment, social-emotional, communication, cognitive), few models and materials are available for providing these supports to parents with intellectual disabilities. The Parent-Infant Interaction Project (PII-Project) will develop an evidence-based curriculum for implementation by parents with intellectual disabilities and their professional or paraprofessional coach within natural environments to enhance parent-infant interaction and child development.

Goals of PII-Project include:

(1) Develop a research-based curriculum, coaching model, and training materials for use by parents with intellectual disabilities and their coach in a collaborative process to enhance the parent-infant relationship and nurture child developement.

(2) Conduct single subject studies of the effects of the PII-Project coaching model, curriculum, and training materials, including multiple-baseline design studies across goals and the collection of additional qualitative data.

(3) Field-test and evaluate the coaching model, curriculum and training materials through a multi-method study across three different types of early childhood/parent support programs.

Contact Info:

Leslie J. Munson, Ph.D., munsonl@pdx.edu