Psychologist since 1973, always worked with children with special needs and their families. Since 1985, mainly worked within Early Childhood Intervention. Within Master degree (2006) research has been conducted with mothers and children. Within PhD degree research included families and pre-school teachers

Since 2010, the work with Pais-Em-Rede (Parent Network Association), an Association of families with handicapped children mainly focus in family enabling and empowerment and parental support

Development and learning of infants and children with special educational needs, mainly Down syndrome children, early intervention and mother-infant interaction have always been my research interests.

Since 2010 I have been working with Pais-Em-Rede (Parent Network Association), an Association of families with handicapped children. Within this Association and under my supervision, there has been a project (involving families from 14 distrits in Portugal) to promote parental skills in order to fully participate in their children's school and social inclusion. 7 Master thesis and 1PhD have been completed within this project.

National and International collaboration / partnerships

Elisabete Mendes (PhD student until 2011)

Early Intervention Quality Evaluation: practices in the district of Portalegre (Avaliação da qualidade em Intervenção Precoce: práticas no distrito de Portalegre