The issue of how to promote a normalizing approach to intervention with families is increasingly important as families become the central target for intervention services. The principles underlying P.L. 99–457 provide broad support for a normalized approach. However, the specifics of how to carry out these principles in designing intervention have not been fully defined in the models of family intervention described in the literature. The ABCX Model of Family Adaptation (Hill, 1958) has been put forth as an integrated framework for linking the steps of assessment, outcomes, and implementation in a way that emphasizes family strengths as the starting point for intervention. It is argued that conceptualizing intervention using this framework increases the likelihood that intervention will be planned and conducted in ways reflective of the normalizing approach underlying P.L. 99–457.
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