Sharing What Works in Supporting Infants & Toddlers and the Families in Early Intervention
When you walk in the door to a family’s home, who is the focus of your visit? Who are you there to work with?
These might seem like two very straight-forward questions, but think about them for a moment. The early intervention world revolves around the infant or toddler with the developmental delay or disability, the little person …
Imagine that you’re on a visit and you observe this mother and child playing together with their stacking rings. This is a game that they play often and that the child really enjoys. Let’s pretend that this child qualified for EI with global developmental delays. His IFSP outcomes address priorities such as learning to crawl from …
Rule of thumb…never bring a xylophone to an intervention visit when there are siblings in the mix.
This was one of my biggest rules when I was working in EI and still lugging around a toy bag. Ages ago I had a visit where I brought the xylophone along and the preschool-aged brother of the child …
How many times has this happened to you? You arrive for your EI visit to a family’s home and find that the large screen TV is on and a favorite show is airing. Perhaps it is a beloved cartoon for the child, or maybe it is the mother’s favorite talk show host. Is the father …
Ask any 3 families what bathtime is like for their child, and you’ll get 3 different responses. For one family, bathtime might be a long, fun, wet playtime each night for the parent and child. For another, it might be a very busy time of bathing 3 young children, getting them in and out of …
Today we host our monthly Talks on Tuesdays webinar and our topic is “Addressing the Receptive Language Skills of Young Children” with Dr. Corey Cassidy. The webinar will be archived and a fantastic tip sheet will be posted within the next few days on our Talks on Tuesdays page on the VA EI Professional Development Center site …
Are you working with a very young child who has multiple disabilities? If you are looking for resources, check out our new Multiple Disabilities topic page on the VA EIPD Center site! You’ll find free articles, fact sheets, a resource landing pad (PDF, New Window), a video of a mother telling her early intervention story …
One of the interesting ideas that’s percolating around in my brain following the DEC conference is about using videotaping during and between early intervention visits. Here are a few ways I’ve either heard about or read about for using videotaping in early intervention to help families bridge the gap between visits and everyday life:
Using a …
We know from research in early intervention that making the change to using collaborative, family-centered practices during early intervention visits continues to be challenging for EI providers. One of the reasons that this continues to be a challenge is because most of us think we are already doing it!
Each of us needs to take the …
In my previous post I discussed five tips that will help early interventionists in collaborating with families to embed therapeutic strategies into their daily routines. To review, the tips are: start with a routine based interview, incorporate family goals into strategies, set up the environment, follow the family’s and child’s lead, and be creative. In …
