Publications by authors named "Tricia D Foster"

Although all families experience a variety of transitions over time, families of children with exceptionalities tend to encounter more transitions during their children's earliest years. Transitions can be stressful and often include changes as part of early intervention or special education services. It is important to understand these transitions because the support families receive can influence child and family well-being.

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The Division for Early Childhood (DEC) clearly outlined recommended practices for the provision of Part C services. However, there may be challenges in rural areas associated with services aligning with these recommended practices. Therefore, this study focuses on how families experience Part C services and the extent to which services align with specific areas the DEC recommended practices in the large, rural state of Montana.

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Purpose Narrative skill, a child's ability to create a temporally sequenced account of an experience or event, is considered an important domain of children's language development. Narrative skill is strongly predictive of later language and literacy and is emphasized in curricula and educational standards. However, the need to transcribe a child's narrative and the lack of psychometrically justified scoring methods have precluded broad consideration of narrative skill among practitioners.

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Background: Given the importance of families in supporting the health and developmental outcomes of young children, current recommended practices for early intervention services advocate for a family-centred practice (FCP) approach that recognizes the importance of children's family systems. Though there is consensus in the field on the importance of this approach, there often remains a disconnection between these values and the everyday practice of early intervention practitioners. This study focuses on understanding the ways in which practitioners define FCP as this can provide valuable insight into why these belief-practice disconnections may exist.

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