Every infant, toddler, and family who comes into our early intervention (EI) system has a point of transition. In most cases, the family is preparing for the child’s next adventure beyond EI. The family has to learn about and adjust to the idea of a different support system. They may feel sad to be leaving what is familiar, but also excited (and a little nervous) about what’s to come because it means their child is growing and ready to move forward. They need to learn about where they are going while saying a fond goodbye to their EI family.

That is exactly how I feel right now.

I have a big transition ahead of me. I have accepted a faculty position as an assistant professor of early childhood special education at Old Dominion University so I will be leaving my VEIPD team at the end of July. I am super excited about my next big adventure and am doing my best to prepare for it, knowing that my support system will change and I have much to learn. I definitely feel sadness about leaving what is familiar – I’ve worked with the VEIPD team for 12 years and I love my colleagues. I’ve had amazing opportunities to develop this blog, create resources for EI practitioners doing the most important work of supporting families, facilitate training where I learned alongside participants, and connect with EI practitioners and leaders all over the country. Where I’m headed is built on the foundation of where I’ve been, much like how EI provides a foundation on which families transition. It is with much love and gratitude that I make this transition, even if it hurts my heart just a little (ok, maybe more than a little…).

This Is Not Goodbye…

I have decided to approach my transition without saying goodbye. Instead, this is a big “see you later!” because I may be leaving the VEIPD team (although I consider myself a lifetime member), but I’m not leaving what I love. I love early intervention. I love learning with others. I love sharing new knowledge, building resources, and helping others learn and grow. I am so fortunate to have been a part of this team and so excited to take what I’ve learned and share it with new colleagues and students who will be the future of the EI workforce. Great things are coming!

Again, with lots of love and gratitude, I wish all of you, our subscribers, the very best! Thanks for reading, commenting, and sharing your brilliance here on our blog!

See you later! 🙂

After July 22, 2022, I can be reached at Old Dominion University at dchildre@odu.edu.

Please reach out to Cori Hill (cfhill@vcu.edu) or Lisa Terry (lmterry@vcu.edu) if you have questions about the blog or any other resources from the VA Early Intervention Professional Development Center.

The post It’s Not Goodbye, It’s See You Later! appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

On May 1, 2021, Governor Northam proclaimed May as Early Intervention Awareness Month in Virginia. Many EI programs use this month to raise awareness and build relationships with referral sources, physician offices, other community programs, and of course, families. The video What is Early Intervention in Virginia? is often shared widely because it provides an overview explaining what EI is, what it looks like, and how it works. One of the things I love about this video is the opportunity to see and hear from families who have experienced EI. I think family stories are perhaps the most powerful “tools’ we have to build awareness of what EI has to offer. They can help us reach new families and invite them into partnerships with us. Family stories also remind us about why we do what we do. With that in mind, I’m going to share several videos you can use to spread the word about EI from the perspectives of families. If you have other videos you love too, please share the links by leaving a comment below. Here we go!

Reflections during the Final Visit (CO Dept of Education, runtime 5:46)

This video features a mother reflecting on her relationship with the physical therapist who visited her home to support her and her daughter. I think that perhaps, showing what happens at the end of EI, like you’ll hear and see in this video, can help open a doorway to the beginning of EI for another family.

Liam’s Story: A Mother’s Voice (VEIPD, runtime 5:15)

This video also features a mother telling the story of her family’s experience with EI. This story is a powerful reminder of the impact of this work on the daily lives and relationships of families. As an early interventionist, you never know what you might say or do that can have a lifelong impact. EI Awareness Month can be a nice reminder about that too.

Dream Big: A FIT Family Story (FIT FOCUS Video Library, runtime 5:27)

In this video, you’ll hear from a mother and father about how EI worked for them. They explain the emphasis on helping the family help the child. They also describe about how coaching helped them to use strategies in their home during the things they already do rather than adding extra things to do. They also share advice for families to “dream big for your child.” (Due to permission settings, you’ll need to click the “Watch on Vimeo” button below. This video is definitely worth the extra click.)

Parents and Early Intervention (EITP Illinois, runtime 7:59)

I featured this video in another recent post because it’s new. I think it’s worth mentioning again as another resource to share a family’s story. Even though this isn’t a family in VA, I think this family’s message is universal.

That’s just a few of the fantastic family story videos that are floating around the web. If you’d like to see more videos of families in EI, check out the Early Intervention Video Library and look for Families’ Experiences in EI in the menu. You might also find the Early Intervention – General page helpful for sharing info about EI with others.

So what are you doing to celebrate EI Awareness Month? What is your favorite EI family story video?

Share your thoughts, ideas, and video links in the comments below!

The post EI Awareness Month in VA – The Power of Family Stories appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

You’ve worked really hard this year. You’ve stretched to fit into a mold of providing early intervention (EI) that was unlike any you’d ever experienced before. You struggled, you persisted, and you succeeded. You did it because you love what you do. You also did it because you love the families.

This new video, Parents and Early Intervention, from the Early Intervention Training Program at the University of Illinois is like a gift to all EI practitioners for the hard work you’ve done this year. It reminds us about the power of high quality intervention and how important our partnership with families can be. I know you know this, but it sure is nice to hear it from a family. Now, take 7:59 minutes to meet the Warren family and hear their story. I guarantee it’ll make your day.

See, doesn’t that do your heart good?

So yes, this may have been one of the most challenging years we’ve faced as a field, but when other businesses and services closed, EI did not. You continued to support families, reaching them virtually, checking on them by phone, and working together in ways that were new, different, creative, and inspiring. Now, as you reflect on this past year, ask yourself:

When you think of families you have supported, what do you hope they say about their EI experience?

Type your reflections in the comments below.

*Thank you to EITP and the Warren Family for sharing their story!*

For more videos featuring families’ experiences, visit the Families’ Experiences in EI page on the EI Video Library.

The post A Gift for You – New “Parents and Early Intervention” Video from EITP Illinois appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

Many of you have been providing early intervention services via virtual visits for nine months now. That’s a long time….I probably don’t need to tell you that because you are living it. It’s been a long time since you sat in a family’s living room, since you held a baby, since you blew bubbles with a toddler, since you guided a parent’s hands as she helped her baby learn to stand, or since you got one of those amazing toddler hugs. Many of you have become grounded in tele-intervention and, while you undoubtedly miss in-person visits, you have embraced this incredibly unique opportunity to grow as professionals.

What Are You Thankful For?

Take a deep breath, look out of a window, and pause. Think about the past nine months and ask yourself: “What has this experience of providing tele-intervention given me? What am I thankful for?” Somedays, you might answer that this experience has given you a headache from staring at the computer screen all day long. Other days, you might find yourself joyfully celebrating progress you got to see by “joining” a family during an activity you might never have been able to observe before.

While I am not seeing families via tele-intervention, here are a few things I’m thankful for when I reflect on our field’s experience this year:

#1: I’m thankful for the new door we’ve opened.

Being launched into tele-intervention as the only way of reaching families has likely changed our field forever and in a positive way. Many states are advocating for the flexibility to continue to offer tele-intervention as an option to families. Being able to offer tele-intervention to families who prefer it for privacy, flexibility, distance, or other personal family reasons… having the option available to support families of some of our most medically-fragile children…offering virtual visits in areas with provider shortages – all of these could really be game changers. I’m grateful for the door that’s opened so we might be able to continue to leverage technology to further individualize EI services and reach more families.

#2: I’m thankful for the coaching practices that were already in place to help us *really* support caregivers.

I’ve heard over and over that practitioners who were already using coaching practices found the shift to tele-intervention more natural – still challenging and still with a healthy learning curve, but overall, a more natural fit. I’m grateful that we have been practicing coaching and routines-based, family-centered intervention here in VA for years now. Sure, what this looks runs the gamut, but the adoption of this practice made it easier for practitioners to support caregiver and child learning from the other side of a webcam. No one said it was easy to make the shift to virtual visits, but having some great practices in your back pocket seems to have helped.

#3: I’m thankful for you.

Yes, that might sound cliche but hear me out. I’m thankful for EI practitioners and leaders like you who embraced virtual visits when you had no other choice. You put new policies in place, built new systems of support and payment, adopted new technology, and walked families through how to login with kindness and patience. I’m thankful that you pushed through the awkward transition of figuring out where to place the camera and how to manage audio, how to observe and manage silence during visits, and how to teach a parent without being able to model like you’re used to. I’m grateful for the EI teams who experimented and figured out how to use technology to conduct eligibility determinations and assessments, who shared their screens so families could understand their rights and see the IFSP as they joined team members to write it. For all of you who continue to dedicate your time, energy, and bandwidth to children and families receiving early intervention, I see you and I am proud to be part of a field with you in it.

Now it’s your turn. What are you thankful for?

Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

For more information about tele-intervention, visit these resources:

COVID-19 and EI Tele-Intervention Updates (VEIPD)

Provider and Educator Use of Technology (ECTA Center)

The post Tele-Intervention Has Made Me Thankful For… appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

Drew Dudley believes every person has changed someone’s life not by doing something extraordinary but rather through the everyday simple actions of being a leader. These actions can be so small a person may not even recall it in his or her memory. Mr. Dudley presents this inspiring Ted Talk on everyday leadership.

Take 6 minutes to hear his story:

“We have made leadership something bigger than us.”

Drew Dudley is right. If we relate leadership to only changing the world, maybe we need to redefine it. Drew Dudley worries “sometimes we spend so much time celebrating amazing things that hardly anybody can do, that we’ve convinced ourselves those are the only things worth celebrating.” The truth is there are moments that occur every day that define you as a true leader. Awareness and intention to understand the power of our own light can help us recognize what Mr. Dudley calls “lollipop moments.” Those moments are what makes us leaders.

“A lollipop moment is a moment someone said something and did something that made your life fundamentally better.”

Take a moment to pause and reflect on this statement. Who has impacted your life by simply saying or doing something? How have you impacted others?

It’s possible we do not always realize the power of our own words and actions in everyday moments. One day, I remember I was leaving the soccer field. A mother approached me and asked if I remembered her. She looked very familiar and then I recalled working with the family in early intervention. This mother gave me an update on her child and thanked me for supporting them. She told me she often thinks of the impact I made on them by providing the foundation for her, her husband and grandparents to help her son continue to grow in his journey. Wow! I was speechless. I did not realize the power of my influence on this family.

These are moments we have all experienced and never realized it……..a lollipop moment. This mother just found an opportunity to thank me for it.

Drew Dudley challenges us to “redefine leadership about lollipop moments. How many we create? How many we acknowledge? How many of them we pay forward? How many we say thank you for?” I am accepting this challenge and will remain aware of the opportunities to create lollipop moments with families. I will acknowledge the power I hold as a leader. I will model characteristics of a great leader daily during my visits and when working with my team members. I will thank others when they say or do something that impacts change in my life.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us. -Marianne Williamson

Please feel free to share your own lollipop moment when someone has impacted your life or thanked you for impacting their life.

What were your first thoughts after watching this video?

The post Everyday Leadership: Redefining Leadership in Lollipop Moments appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

You know the one…that moment when your heart filled up and you thought, “THIS is why I do what I do.” It’s that moment when you see a child achieve a milestone that has been long coming, or you watch as a parent realizes that she has taught her child to walk. It’s like a beautiful sunrise – you never forget it. Those are moments that we are so lucky to witness.

Who’s Moment Is It?

When I was a much younger early interventionist, I took a lot of pride in those moments, feeling so fortunate to have had the opportunity to help a child learn to walk or talk. As my career matured and I learned the importance of my role as a support to the parent, I really had to adjust where I found this moment. I realized a much deeper sense of accomplishment and joy in building the parent up and seeing that pride in their eyes. I wanted them to own their child’s progress. I worked toward helping them understand that, as McWilliam so eloquently said, it wasn’t what I did when I visited that affected the child’s development…it was what the parent learned during the visit and did with the child between visits that made all the difference. I think I believed it all along, but I didn’t really let it change the way I viewed my role and the importance of what I did until later. I knew that families make the biggest difference in their children’s lives, not me. I knew that the most child learning happens when I’m not there. But, I’m not sure I really embraced this until I started changing my practices to shift into a new role – one of a facilitator and support to parents rather than a teacher of children. When I really focused on facilitating responsive interactions between parents and their young children, rather than teaching children developmental skills, I felt the difference. I knew who these moments should really belong to, and it wasn’t me.

A Sunrise EI Moment

I was working with Dylan, a 2-year old, while his nurse sat nearby. I was challenging him to see if he could communicate that he wanted to play with a particular toy. Dylan had multiple disabilities and his communication was difficult to read, for me and for his caregivers. He would sometimes turn his head to indicate “no” but we really hadn’t determined how he communicated “yes” or a positive choice. This morning, while I was helping him activate a farm toy, I decided to turn it off. I told Dylan to let me know if he wanted me to turn it back on. I waited and waited, trying to read his body language. He turned his head, which I hoped meant that he didn’t like my question rather than not wanting to play. When I helped him move his hand to the toy, he seemed to want to continue to play so I wondered if he was frustrated, hence the head turn. The nurse wasn’t very happy with me as I turned the toy on and off several more times, each time waiting longer and watching Dylan’s body language. Maybe the third or fourth time I turned it off and waited, I saw it. I saw Dylan’s signal. I tested it out by repeating the process, and each time, he signaled his “yes.” I was thrilled, the nurse was happy, but someone was missing.

Dylan’s mother had stepped away to take care of Dylan’s sibling, so we called her back into the room. I explained that I thought Dylan had just indicated that he wanted something. She doubted me, saying that she’d never seen it before. I explained as I helped Dylan activate the toy (he needed help keeping his arms on his tray but then could move his hands to activate the farm animals). Then, I turned the toy off and said, “Dylan, do you want play some more? Should I turn the farm back on?” We waited, watching, and his mom even became nervous because she worried I was making Dylan too uncomfortable. Eventually (maybe 20-30 sec), Dylan raised his right arm off the tray. It was a subtle sign, but it had meaning. I turned the toy back on and he played. I turned it off again, asked the question, waited, and he raised his arm again. I was so happy, and then I looked up at Dylan’s mother and she was crying. My heart sunk. I asked if she was okay, and she replied, “I’ve never had a way to communicate with my son. I’ve never been able to know what he wanted, until now.” She tried the same game I had modeled and cried more. She showed Dylan’s older brother, who was an expert in no time at asking Dylan before he did anything with him and waiting for Dylan’s gesture.

It was like the sun had come out. I was so proud of Dylan, and frankly, pretty excited to have figured this out. But above all that, I was deeply moved by what Dylan’s mother said. THAT was why I do what I do. That was one of those moments I will never forget.

What’s your sunrise EI moment?

Share your sunrise moment in the comments below, and please remember to protect the family’s confidentiality when you tell your story because it’s not just your story to tell. 🙂

The post A Sunrise EI Moment You’ll Never Forget appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

Okay, I think I made that up: “reflecting forward.” It’s a bit of an oxymoron, but let me explain.

Reflection implies that we intentionally and mindfully think about our actions – either while in the moment (reflection in action) or afterwards (reflection on action). As we begin a fresh, wide open new year, now is a natural time to take a few minutes to actively reflect forward (reflection before action), contemplating what we want our actions to be in the coming months based on what we’ve done in the past.

Reflecting Forward…and Back

Reflecting forward is almost impossible to do without looking back first. When I look back on 2015, I see goals I accomplished (co-authored a book…check) and goals I’d hoped to accomplish (graduate…well, I’m in the dissertation phase so that’s progress). When I reflect forward, I see opportunities that are grounded in the actions I’ve already taken. I’m looking forward to my travels to Illinois in March for the Empowering Professionals Conference and to Kentucky in October for DEC. I hope to (finally) finish my dissertation. I’m excited to nurture what our professional development (PD) team has started in 2015. Our team has several exciting projects underway, including a coaching implementation project that supports local leaders in using our Coaching Facilitation Guide through 6 months of technology-mediated, group support. We will continue with our monthly Talks on Tuesdays webinars and web discussions with interesting topics coming up. We are making great progress on extensive revisions to our state’s EI certification modules. We have upcoming PD work related to our state’s state systemic improvement plan (SSIP) that will help our service coordinators and service providers grow and deepen their practices. It’s an exciting time. Taking these few moments to reflect forward reminds me of why I do what I do, how much I enjoy the work, why it energizes, and what I have to look forward to.

Now it’s your turn…take 2 minutes and reflect forward to consider what you are excited about for the year ahead. What do you hope for? What energizes you? What do you want to do this year…do better, do more of, do differently? What are you looking forward to?

Share your reflections in the comments and let’s look forward to 2016 together!

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Okay, so after 5 years of blogging I’m finally doing the thankfulness blog post during the holiday week. I could resist no longer…no, really. This just seems like the perfect time to think about what we are grateful for with the work that we do.

Top 5 Reasons I’m Thankful for EI

Here are the top five things I’m most thankful for about early intervention:

5. I’m thankful for the opportunities I’ve had to meet and learn from so many families. I’m thankful for the gifts of compassion, persistence, and joy that they’ve shared with me along the way.

4. I’m thankful for the opportunities I have now to help others learn and grow their EI practice. I’m still meeting people and learning, but from a different perspective that challenges me and makes me grow too.

3. I’m very grateful for the early intervention my son received 11 years ago. I’m grateful for the knowledge and experience I gained as a service coordinator and an educator that helped me in my personal life, and that propels me in my professional life.

2. I’m thankful for the excitement of seeing an infant roll over for the first time, after a physical struggle with a tiny body that was just learning how to move. I’m thankful for the wonder of seeing communication “click” for a toddler who struggled to connect with others. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with a parent who truly owned her child’s intervention and understood that what she did mattered more than anything I could ever do. For all of the magical milestones I’ve been lucky enough to witness, I am so grateful.

1. I’m thankful for the kindness, guidance, and support of others who have walked the EI path before me, for those who are walking it now, and for those just starting out.  I feel lucky to have stumbled into EI 20 years ago and found my place among these amazing people.

Let’s declare this a week of early intervention gratitude! Take a moment to reflect on your work…what are YOU thankful for?

Share your gratitude in the comments below!

The post What Are You Thankful For? appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

Entering the field of early intervention can be a great adventure! It’s a field in which a new provider often experiences a period of adjustment – adjusting to using her knowledge and skills in a new way, adjusting to working in a variety of natural environments, and adjusting to coaching caregivers instead of working directly with the child for the whole session. To help these newbies, or help those of you who are training and supporting them, check out this top 10 list to make sure that those entering our field are well-prepared!

Top 10 “Need to Knows”

10 – Family-centered practice is not the same as teaching in a classroom or doing therapy in a clinic. You will use your skills differently when supporting a child’s development in early intervention – through using  his/her family interactions, using their materials, intervening during their activities, all the while focusing on what is important and meaningful to them. Family-centered early intervention puts you in a collaborative role that focuses on directly supporting the caregiver as the most important team member, the person who has the greatest chance of making the biggest difference in the child’s life.

9 – Knowledge of infant and toddler development across all domains is essential. Infant and toddler development is interconnected, so regardless of your professional discipline, you must be familiar with all areas of development and how one area affects another. Early interventionists may have expertise in a particular area of development, but view a child’s development through a holistic lens.

8 – Stacking blocks is not really all that important. Many of the items on an assessment don’t really matter in the grand scheme of life; instead, it is the underlying skills and abilities that these items demonstrate that matter. It will be these underlying skills that affect a child’s functional abilities in everyday life, and that’s what you target during intervention. Learning to stack 3-5 one inch cubes should never be an IFSP outcome.

7 – How the IFSP and outcomes are written really matters. The IFSP is the family’s document and it, and the outcomes, belong to the family. As such, both should be written in language the family can understand and include their priorities and hopes for their child’s development. The IFSP and outcomes should be individualized to the child’s and family’s strengths, needs, abilities, and interests. When the IFSP and outcomes are not meaningful to a family, intervention may be less likely to be viewed as belonging to them too.

6 – You are not an island…though it might feel like that sometimes. Being an EI service provider often means long hours traveling from visit to visit, by yourself. Keeping in touch with your team members is key to providing well-coordinated intervention. It’s also important for your own professional growth and health too.Ask questions, join other’s visits, and seek out opportunities for teaming.

5 – ALL children learn during everyday routines and interactions with their caregivers and the environment. It’s up to you to help families identify the natural routines and interactions that offer (or could offer) the child opportunities to learn and grow. Children with delays and disabilities often need additional support to take advantage of all of the learning opportunities around them, which is why how you share your expertise and adapt it to the family’s unique activities is so important. Look for the opportunities and help the family seize them, because they are there.

4 – Knowledge of intervention strategies and how to adapt them to address a child’s strengths, interests and needs is pivotal…but how you SHARE it matters too. No, you’re not expected to turn the parent into a therapist or teacher. You are expected to share your expertise in ways that boost the parent’s knowledge and confidence with facilitating her child’s development. A good interventionist adapts his knowledge to fit the situation, then skillfully shares it so that the parent knows what she needs to know to help her child everyday.

3 – For infants & toddlers, coaching and collaborating with parents is more effective than directly teaching the child. You will teach adults too! You may have taken this job because you love babies, but be prepared – a lot of what you will do will involve teaching and coaching the child’s caregivers. Familiarize yourself with adult learning and develop your coaching skills because if you really want to be effective, you must embrace the fact that what you do during the visit only matters if the caregiver is prepared to use what she learned, between visits when you aren’t there.

2 – The real intervention happens between visits. Most child learning will occur between visits, so the intervention visit should be used as a practice session for the caregiver and child. Help them practice using intervention strategies during the visit then problem-solve and plan for how they will use them between visits, during similar and different routines. Focusing on this “other” time, between visits, is key to successful intervention, because all of that “other” time is really what matters.

1 – Early intervention – what you do – is important! You’ve chosen to enter a field of infinite possibilities. It’s an exciting time to be in early intervention because we are in the midst of learning about the impact of this work and how to do it most effectively. You never know when something you teach a family will have an impact on them for the rest of the child’s life. That’s an awesome responsibilities, and a golden opportunity. Enjoy it!

What other “need to knows” would you add to this list?

Share your thoughts in the comments below! Now go forth and conquer the magical world of early intervention!

The post Top 10 “Need to Knows” for New & Future Early Interventionists appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

Happy Early Intervention Awareness Month!

This week, Virginia’s governor released his annual proclamation (external website) that we celebrate early intervention in May. This is a great time of year to try to get the word about about early intervention in your locality. Even if you don’t live in Virginia, consider jumping in with us to try to raise awareness of what EI is and how to access it where you are.

Public awareness of early intervention is always an ongoing effort. Finding the time to do it isn’t easy, between intervention visits, meetings, monitoring the budget, staff supervision…the list goes on and on. I’ve found that purposefully planning several times a year to reach out to my referral sources and circulate info about the program was an easy way to focus my efforts. I’ve taken baskets of tea and chocolates to doctor’s office staff, sent mailings to families, visited child care centers, and manned a booth at child health fairs at the mall and community recreation centers. I’ve known others who periodically speak during physician rounds at the local hospital or meet with office managers at pediatric practices.

To help you in your public awareness efforts this month, I thought I’d share some great free resources that you can use to reach families, physicians, and other key referral sources in your community. Please add to the list by sharing what methods you use to get the word out!

Videos

Everyone loves “seeing it” and hearing from families and providers. If they have closed circuit TV in the waiting room, request that your local pediatrician’s office or social services department show one of these videos. Get an EI video played on your local free access TV station. Check out our video: What is Early Intervention in Virginia? below.

This video is 8.45 min long and features families and EI providers talking about what EI is, what it looks like, and why it works. A letter to community partners (PDF, New Window) and guidance for explaining EI (PDF, New Window) are available. If you need this video on a flashdrive or DVR to share, email me (dcchildress@vcu.edu).

Other states have some fantastic videos too: NYC Health: Early Intervention Program, Early Intervention Home Visits (Connecticut), and Early Childhood Intervention is Key (Texas).

If you need a video to support the importance of early childhood intervention, here are four powerful resources. If you haven’t yet, take a few moments and watch.

Handouts & Brochures

Keep handouts for referral sources short and sweet. They likely have very little time to read what you send, so make it count.

What is Early Intervention? (PDF, New Window) – VA brochure, also available in Spanish (PDF, New Window).

Parents are Often the First to Know When Their Baby Needs a Helping Hand: A Checklist for Your Child’s Development from Birth to Age Three (PDF, New Window) – VA resource. Contact local playgroups, parent support groups, mommy & me groups, child care centers, parenting classes, social services, and preschools and request that they distribute this checklist. Be sure to add a sticker with contact info for your local program.

After the NICU: Promoting Your Premature Baby’s Development at Home (PDF, New Window) – VA brochure, also available in Spanish (PDF, New Window). Contact your local NICU to ask if they will share this with families.

The Importance of Early Intervention for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities and their Families (PDF, New Window) (NECTAC/ECTA Center) – Share this document with groups who are unfamiliar with EI, such as with funders.

Additional Ideas

Feed your referral sources – Along with your materials, take them a muffin breakfast, a basket of chocolate, or sandwiches for lunch. People love to snack and may warm up easier if you break the ice with a peace offering.

Regularly connect and check-in with key people – Find out who the office manager is and have a face-to-face meeting to discuss making referrals and answer questions. Other key people might include the physician’s nurse, an agency’s referral coordinator, the social workers at CPS or other DSS programs, lead staff at child care centers, social workers at the local hospital nursery or NICU, local substance abuse counselors, etc. Who are the key people in your locality?

Offer free screenings – Contact child care centers and preschools and offer a morning of free screenings once or twice a year. This takes coordination, but can be a great way to raise awareness among families and teachers.

Advertise your program a positive community resource – Sometimes, EI programs can be viewed as the place you send families who have children with challenges, which is true, but can also make people nervous. Advertise your program as a place where families can get info about infant and toddler development, ask questions, connect to resources, and receive support. Participate in community wellness fairs. Seek out collaborative opportunities with other agencies who serve children and families who may benefit from what you do. Let others know that you are happy to screen any child. Have open arms and be a positive presence in your community, and the word will get out!

What specific activities are you planning to celebrate EI and raise awareness? What have you done in the past that worked well?

Share your ideas in the comments below!

Visit the Early Intervention: What It Is and Why It Works and Resources and Info for Families pages on the VA Early Intervention Professional Development Center site for more info you can use. Visit the Infant and Toddler Connection of Virginia for information about VA’s early intervention system.

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