The Art and Practice of Home Visiting

Dr. Cook earned her doctorate degree with an emphasis on developmental psychology and two related master of arts degrees from the University of California at Los Angeles. She focused her interest on young children with special needs while serving as Director of the Early Childhood Center at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and the Child Development Center at Mount Saint Mary’s College in Los Angeles. Daily involvement with families of children from highly diverse backgrounds convinced her of the importance of fully involving families in all aspects of their children’s development.

More than 25 years ago, Dr. Cook recognized the value of providing practical training based on evidence-based practices designed to facilitate inclusion of young children with special needs in natural environments. To this end, she initiated the publication of the coauthored Adapting Early Childhood Curricula for Young Children with Special Needs (Prentice Hall, 2007). This pioneering text is now in its 7th edition. In addition, she is a co-author of Strategies for Including Children with Special Needs in Early Childhood Settings (Thomson Delmar Learning, 2000). She has directed several federal training grants that provide tuition assistance to prepare students to work with young children with special needs both in their homes and in center-based programs. Dr. Cook consults widely and presents often in the areas of family-professional relationships and strategies for effective inclusion.

While at Western Michigan University, Ms. Sparks spent a sabbatical year with the department of public health in Battle Creek, Michigan, doing home visits with public health nurses. More recently she was an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Early Childhood Education at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in speech pathology and audiology from the University of Iowa, her Master of Arts degree also in speech pathology and audiology from Tulane University, New Orleans, and completed all but her dissertation in the Ph.D. program in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Ms. Sparks was a pioneer in early intervention, working with families, home visiting, and giving numerous presentations throughout the county. She has felt strongly that it is necessary to remain a practitioner in the field to experience real problems that early interventionists encounter. Until very recently, she served as a consultant to HOPE Homestart in San JosÃ(c), California, a home program for children with special needs between age 0 and 3. A fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Ms. Sparks has authored training modules and many articles and chapters on early intervention and the family in addition to a book on genetics in speech-language disorders and a book on the effects of prenatal substance abuse on speech and language.