Different organizations in Sweden offer early childhood intervention to children with disabilities and their families, usually organized as inter-professional practice. In our presentation we will give a meta-analysis out of the methodological procedures and results of empirical studies made in different professional groups. We will discuss competence and development as well as the social interaction of professionals involved in early intervention.
Social interaction in groups of special needs educators makes more of dialogical reflection than critical discussion. Groups documenting their meetings focus on the content of discussions rather than the structure of the meetings. Group discussions increase possibilities for meta-level reflection. Inter-professional groups tend to focus on the general competence rather than on specific expert skills. Special needs educators show a communicative skill adapted to the commission of communicating with children and parents everyday talk rather than in a meta-theoretical level of language. There is ambivalence among the professionals when talking about their own progress during work based training, pride in the individual knowledge on the one hand and onthe other reflection of new insights.
Research methods used are focus groups, questionnaires, stimulated recall and discussion protocols. These interactive research methods include feedback process which contributes to awareness and insight of professional competence in early childhood intervention. Extensive programs of education, research and teacher education or qualified dialogue on these matters could constitute proper arenas for the realization of these ambitions. Demanding conversations on shared problems of theory and practice, and their interrelationships, may help to integrate principled arguments with contextual complexity in systematic ways that could hopefully bring important validity claims to the fore of professional conduct.