Pause and Reflect

Your Guide to a Deeper Understanding of Early Intervention Practice

Author: Dana C. Childress, Ph.D.

Early Childhood

A one-of-a-kind workbook designed to help early childhood professionals reflect on their practices, grow their skills, and be confident that they're translating the best, most current knowledge into real-world action every day.

Contains Companion Materials

• Product Details
• Table of Contents
• Reviews
• Contributors
• Free Resources
• Companion Materials

Whether you're a new or experienced early intervention professional, taking time to reflect on your daily work is critical to your success. This one-of-a-kind workbook is designed to help you reflect on what you do, why you do it, and how you can continue to grow your skills to ensure the best outcomes for the families you serve.

Dana Childress, a seasoned practitioner and trainer, gives you a systematic, organized, and efficient way to pause and reflect on your practices, so you can be confident that you're translating the best, most current knowledge into real-world action every day. Engaging, interactive exercises will help every professional—at any level of experience—examine and enhance their work with young children and families. You'll get reflection prompts, realistic examples, self-assessments, knowledge checks, action plan templates, and reflective journal pages to fill out as you

• Review the mission, key principles, and recommended practices of early intervention
• Work through a detailed guide to conducting effective, balanced EI visits that facilitate learning for both children and caregivers
• Learn how to gather the most meaningful information from families to individualize intervention and develop service plans
• Discover ways to manage your workload and avoid burnout through time management strategies, stress management, and ongoing professional development

The practical follow-up to Family‐Centered Early Intervention by Raver and Childress, this book is an essential resource for group professional development sessions, independent study, and preservice courses.

INCLUDES STUDY GUIDE! A free 6-month book study guide—available for download online—will help you facilitate training sessions aligned with Dunst's evidence-informed professional development.

Reviews

Dathan Rush, Ed.D., Director, Family, Infant, & Preschool Program, Morganton, NC - March 22, 2021

" Pause and Reflect is a practical, easy-to-read guide for how to partner with caregivers in early intervention to promote child learning as part of everyday activities. Dana promotes active participation of the reader by providing opportunities for reflection and action planning to put new learning into practice."

Lynda Cook Pletcher, M.Ed., Retired Technical Assistance Specialist - Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center, Chapel Hill, NC - March 22, 2021

“A terrific, practical book for all early intervention service providers working with families and young children. The workbook arrangement, examples, and framework of pausing and reflecting on how things are going on specific EI visits can lead to better outcomes for the family and child and improve the competence of even the most seasoned provider.”

Beth Cole, Ed.D., Provider Relations Manager, Early Intervention Colorado - March 22, 2021

“In Pause and Reflect, Dana highlights what makes working in early intervention unique. The number and variety of reflective opportunities will be useful for individual providers and teams alike. This workbook will be an excellent resource for all EI providers—especially those who are new to the field—and should be required reading.”

Juliann Woods, Florida State University - March 22, 2021

“The right resource at the right time for early intervention providers. Pause and Reflect offers a unique combination of readable, practical content to engage professionals in a thoughtful examination of their practice and provides strategies for developing a plan for professional growth. This guide includes a variety of interactive activities, anecdotes, checklists, examples, and resources for both individual and group study, making it a wonderful addition to the libraries of both EI and professional development providers.”

Laurie Dinnebeil, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, University of Toledo - March 22, 2021

“’What we do during visits affects what the caregiver does between visits.’ Words of wisdom from an early intervention leader. Anyone who wants to learn more about how to support families to support their children's development would find this book an important resource!”

Linda Labas, M.Ed., Early Childhood Coordinator, Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies, University of Maine - March 21, 2021

"As an early childhood professional who’s involved in the evolution of early intervention, I am thrilled that Pause and Reflect will be available to our field. Childress’ approach to addressing the “research to practice” gap hits the mark by providing new and practicing Early Interventionist with practical, user-friendly resources to assess their own practice and guide their work with parents, caregivers, and children. I honestly couldn’t put the book down. I was intrigued from the start by Childress’ story and the way she personally connected to each topic and offered down to earth, doable strategies and information to promote reflection and practice. I cheered hardily as I read Chapter 3 and the connections made to adult learning. This book is a must read for new and practicing Early Interventionist and a resource for faculty and others supporting professional learning. I will definitely use and share this resource with others in the field."

Additional Resources

Six Early Intervention Adult Learning Principles

Four Tips for Scheduling Early Intervention Home Visits

Learn More About Self-Reflection

The Importance of Self-Reflection: A Q&A with Dana C. Childress

Read a Blog Post

5 Tips for Building a Reciprocal Relationship with Parents of Young Children

Watch a Webinar

Supercharge Home Visiting with Adult Learning Principles

Read an Excerpt

Preface & Chapter 1: Early Intervention as a Practice

This product has additional material available on the Brookes Download Hub.

• 6‐month book study guide