A Close Look at Intersectionality in an Early Intervention Case Study

Families of young children with medical complexities experience barriers related to their children’s disability, which are exacerbated for families with additional marginalized identities. An intersectional lens is important for understanding how a family’s multiple and overlapping identities shape their experiences. In this case study, we explored the ways in which one family’s intersectionality resulted in issues of power within their daily life and early intervention services using multiple sources of qualitative data. Our findings include five patches that illustrate the family’s intersectional experiences and highlight issues of power, bias, and oppression. The patches include (1) the child’s birth and neonatal experience, (2) evicted to unhoused, (3) disruptions caused by social services, (4) disruptions and decisions about EI, and (5) providers’ passivity and insensitivity to intersectional identities. We share implications for how EI providers, systems leaders, and researchers can use an intersectional lens in their work.