How Responsive Is Early Intervention to the Priorities and Needs of Families? Gerald Mahoney and Janet Filer, Family Child Learning Center This study assessed the type and scope of services provided to families participating in early intervention programs and examined whether early intervention services were responsive to families' concerns. From 63 pro- grams, 357 mothers responded to a printed questionnaire. Results indi- cated that (a) early intervention programs provided significantly higher levels of family services related to child information, family instructional activities, and systems engagement as compared to personal/family and resource assistance; (b) services were rated more favorably in home-based programs and center-based programs with home-based components than in programs with only center-based services; (c) the services families reported receiving were positively correlated with their ratings of the desirability of services; (d) families' needs for services were significantly higher than the level of services they reported currently receiving; and (e) the types of services families received depended in part on the location in which they resided. No significant relationships were found between characteristics of children and the types of services families received. However, the pattern of relationships between family characteristics and family services suggested that families with optimal patterns of family functioning were more likely to receive services than were families with indicators of risk or dysfunction. Perhaps the greatest change to have occurred in early interven- tion practice services over the past 20 years is the way that programs have conceptualized their relationships with parents and families. Parent and family involvement has long been considered critical to Address: Gerald Mahoney, Family Child Learning Center, 143 Northwest Ave., Tallmadge, OH 44278. TECSE 16(4), 437-457 (1996) © PRO-ED, Inc.