*2.1. Needs Assessment and Intervention Plan Development*

In the RBM, nothing good can happen unless we have a list of goals meaningful to the family and other caregivers spending time with the child [3]. To develop an intervention plan, which goes by different names in different countries, we conduct an ecomap and a Routines-Based Interview (RBI), from which the family chooses functional goals and family goals. This RBI is the assessment of needs upon which the entire goal plan rests.

Ecomap. The ecomap is a picture of the family's ecology [4]. The professional draws the ecomap by asking the family questions about the frequency of their contact with friends, extended family, and neighbors and how much they like the professionals and agencies they work with. Along with formal supports, it identifies the family's informal supports, which is most important. Most early intervention services do no find out about the informal supports the family might be able to count on for support before resorting to formal supports.

Routines-Based Interview. The Routines-Based Interview (RBI) is the best known component of the RBM, but it is only one of the components [5]. An early interventionist interviews the family about the details of child and family functioning in daily routines, and the family chooses functional

child goals/outcomes and family goals. In New Zealand [6], they try to avoid "interview," because some people thought it was a formal 2-h bombardment of the family with questions [7]. From an implementation and branding perspective, however, we encourage implementers to keep using the Routines-Based Interview because of its name recognition.

Functional goals. Goals for child functioning are written to emphasize the child's participation in routines, such as "Jared will participate in breakfast time, hanging out time, and outside time by using single words" [8]. Furthermore, we write the goals with criteria for acquisition, generalization, and maintenance, such as "We will know he can do this when he uses five different single words, in two of these three times of day in one day, over four consecutive days."

Family goals. As a result of the RBI, the family chooses goals for themselves and siblings of the child but not of adults not present at the RBI. The most common goal is time for oneself, such as "Diane will have two hours for herself every two weeks, for 10 consecutive weeks."
