Serving Culturally Diverse Families of Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities.

This publication emerged from an invitational meeting held by "Project Zero to Three" to address how best to provide effective, culturally sensitive, and comprehensive early intervention programs to all infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families in an equitable way. Following an overview of the concept of culture and how that concept may be understood and used by human service providers, specific cultural issues are discussed, such as family definitions, roles, relationships, and child-rearing techniques; health, illness, and disability beliefs and traditions; and communication and interactional styles. This information is then used as a basis for suggesting strategies which states might consider in their efforts to enhance cultural sensitivity in services. The strategies focus on data collection, family participation in policy making and program design, public awareness, working with individual families, staffing, monitoring, and evaluation. Included are a list of 22 references, a list of 33 recommended readings, and descriptions of resource organizations and projects. (JDD)