Early Intervention Strategies for Success

Sharing What Works in Supporting Infants & Toddlers and the Families in Early Intervention

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In Part 1 of this series, we met Phoebe, a service coordinator, and Wyatt’s family. Wyatt had just been referred to early intervention, and his family was eager to begin services but feeling overwhelmed by the process and their son’s new diagnosis of cerebral palsy. We began the discussion about the DEC Recommended Practices (2014) under …

Wyatt was just referred to early intervention (EI) and his parents are unsure about what to expect. EI is a new system for them, one full of acronyms, paperwork, and professionals. They are eager to get services in place but are feeling overwhelmed by the process and Wyatt’s new diagnosis of cerebral palsy. Their service coordinator …

Service coordinators, the early intervention (EI) team members who lead the transition process, often have questions about how to ensure that all of the required transition steps are followed and documented. Individualizing the process while accurately documenting the required steps is an important balance for service coordinators. There are a lot of details to attend …

Oliver’s mother calls you and tells you, with a shaky voice, that he’s been “kicked out” of his third child care center. The center director told her that his behavior has become “more than we can handle” and “a safety concern for the other children.” You’ve been working with this family for several months now on …

Nicholas visits with Mia and her grandmother, Mrs. Wilson, during breakfast. Mrs. Wilson loves to cook and would like to involve Mia but she isn’t sure how. When she’s tried, Mia pulls her hand away or arches her back instead of touching the ingredients. Mrs. Wilson knows that she should help Mia touch different textures …

Last month, we considered the first five DEC Recommended Practices under the Assessment strand. Now, let’s look at practices A6-A11. These practices encourage early interventionists to consider information from a variety of sources about the child’s skills and abilities across different routines, activities, and settings and to do this on an ongoing basis. These practices …

I will admit it.  When I see a friend whose toddler is rocking the paci all day every day, I struggle not to judge.  This, from a mom whose 7-year-old climbs in her bed with her each night.  Parenting is a series of tough choices, choosing the battles worthy of fighting and those you can …

I wish I woke up every morning with a smile on my face, excited about another day, another opportunity to serve families in my community!  But I don’t.  Don’t get me wrong: I do love my job. I’m very grateful and often humbled when families let me into their sacred space, their lives, even just …

Sofia just coordinated the worst assessment ever. With her head spinning, she takes a moment in her car to reflect on just what went wrong so that she can prevent it from happening again. In a nutshell, here’s what happened:

Sofia had originally met with Max’s father for the intake, who had planned to attend the assessment …

You are visiting Mason at his child care center for the first time today. When you arrive, you find the classroom to be super busy, with eight toddlers and two adults. After introducing yourself to the lead teacher and the assistant, you explain how EI visits usually work and ask how you can help. You try …

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