Transdisciplinary Team Building: Strategies in Creating Early Childhood Educator and Health Care Teams

Children with disabilities and their families often require multi-disciplinary professional services to address physical, social and developmental needs. Differences in professional training, pedagogyand practice can create conflict and confusion in meeting those needs. The transdisciplinary approach (TA) of service integration bridges that gap by allowing professionals to share roles across disciplines in order to meet the needs of children and families. Although the process of developing TA teams is documented, the experiences and developmental processes of participants in TA teaming remain largely unexplored. This study examined the experiences of professionals working together in a TA inclusive playgroup in an effort to explore their experience as a part of that team, and to document the development of skills across disciplines. The findings demonstrate that activities such as intentional group reflection impacted the evolution of professional roles including role release skills and role transformation.