The presence of an engaged service coordinator who understands the role and skillfully conducts the  many responsibilities of the position ensures a well-coordinated approach to EI service delivery. It is widely acknowledged in the EI field that families have the right to high-quality, individualized EI services; our field must commit to including service coordination in this acknowledgement by ensuring that the professionals who provide this service receive the attention, understanding, respect, and resources they need and deserve. (DEC and ITCA, 2020, p 10)

Wow. This quote is from the summary of the Service Coordination and Early Intervention – Division for Early Childhood (DEC) and IDEA Infant & Toddler Coordinators Association (ITCA) Joint Position Statement which was recently released in December 2020. It’s a powerful message for our field that’s intended to help us leave behind the unfortunate idea of service coordinators as simply paper pushers. It signals to leaders, administrators, and team members, including families, that service coordinators (SCs) are vitally important professionals who play key roles in the delivery of quality early intervention (EI). It’s about time. I’m proud to have been a part of the development of this statement and eager to spread the word.

A Joint Call to Action

The statement was written, reviewed, and finalized as a collaboration between DEC and ITCA. It represents the voice and beliefs of EI professionals from multiple disciplines who are members of DEC and Part C coordinators across the country. Together, these groups came to the conclusion that we needed a strong Call to Action in support of service coordinators and specific information about the knowledge, skills, beliefs, expertise, roles, and responsibilities of professionals who provide service coordination to encourage consistency across our field.

What Can You Do?

Let’s break down the four recommendations in the Call to Action and consider how to move the dial forward.

#1: States and local programs should review and align current competencies to the indicators in the Knowledge and Skills for Service Coordinators (KSSC) document.

In an appendix, the KSSC outlines six knowledge and skill areas that are essential for service coordinators, including: infant and toddler development, family-centered practices, leadership and teaming, coordination of services, transition, and professionalism. Take some time to read it and compare it to guidance or competencies your program uses when hiring and training SCs. If you don’t have program-level competencies, consider adopting these.

#2: Leaders who hire, supervise, and mentor service coordinators must have a thorough understanding of the expertise and needs of these professionals. This understanding is essential to ensure that compensation aligns with the level of responsibility expected of service coordinators. Service coordinators also should have appropriate administrative support, reflective supervision, and resources to successfully manage the workload, navigate changes in policies and procedures, and, most importantly, partner with families.  

This recommendation focuses on leadership and administrative support, which traditionally varies greatly across EI programs. If you are a leader, be honest with yourself and reflect on what you understand. Can you specifically explain what the SCs in your program do and what they need? If you find holes in your knowledge or how your program functions, make a plan to address them starting today. A few ideas:

• Ask your SCs what they need and how your program can meet this recommendation, then work together to set goals.
• Schedule regular meetings with service coordinators to touch base, identify needs, and collaborate toward goals.
• Provide specific info about policy changes and what they mean. Invite input and be flexible when you can.
• Check in regularly about workloads.
• Be available for regular planned and unplanned reflective supervision.

#3: States and programs must consider multiple factors when determining workload size to ensure that service coordinators can manage the roles and responsibilities outlined in this joint position statement. The factors to consider include (1) the number of families served per service coordinator, (2) the varying levels of need experienced by families, (3) the model of service coordination implemented in the state/program, (4) the need for administrative support and supervision, and (5) the level of responsibility, educational background, and any specific expertise required of service coordinators in a given state or program.

This recommendation strongly encourages programs to use a multi-factorial view when determining workloads for service coordinators, rather than simply relying on “caseload” numbers which often fail to reflect the complexity and individualized nature of the work. If you are a leader, take a hard look at how your program operates, check in with your staff, and make adjustments to make the work more manageable. If you are a service coordinator, examine your workload and talk with your supervisor about what is going well and where you need support. Bring your creative ideas to the meeting and work together to tackle this recommendation. You might not be able to change the number of referrals coming in, but there are often smaller changes that can be made to improve the situation.

#4. Additional research is needed to identify recommended practices specific to service coordination, which could be guided by the KSSC document. Research also needs to address how these practices would be implemented with families and how service coordinators would be trained to use these practices during preservice and inservice training.

This might sound like a recommendation for academics, but academics need EI programs to work with to conduct research. Reach out to your local university to initiate conversations about research and service coordination. Encourage faculty to share the position statement with their students. Building partnerships with faculty not only benefits the students you may share during field placements, but could also have a positive impact on the field if you work together to learn more about best practices.  

I encourage you to take the time to read the full position statement and share it (or the Executive Summary) with at least two other people. Share it with your staff or with colleagues, other SCs, contractor agencies, leadership, families, and higher education faculty. Start thinking about how you can use it in your program or state.

Let’s answer the call for action by dedicating some intentional time and energy to our service coordinators. They deserve it.

How can you use the position statement in your program? Who will you share it with?

The post Call to Action! Service Coordination and Early Intervention – DEC/ITCA Position Statement appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

Ever been in a home visit with a parent who is simultaneously using his/her phone while discussing the child with you? There are lots of ways that phones and screen time show up during visits. For instance, parents hand their child a phone to keep him quiet or distract other children in the home. Parents may pull out their phones to take down notes about interventions or the next appointment. They show us videos and pictures of exciting progress in milestones, or to ask a question about something going on with their child.

Cell phones and all other forms of screens are such a huge part of life today, including children’s lives starting as early as infancy and toddlerhood. As service coordinators and providers, we can choose to resist or ignore these changes, and feel frustrated with how they impact early intervention outcomes. OR, we can step up to the challenge of employing phones and technology as tools in our interventions and interactions with families.

AAP Screen Time Recommendations

The American Academy of Pediatrics has made a formal statement of recommendations for use of technology for children of all ages in their Media and Young Minds Policy (2016). Some specific advice for ages 0-3 includes:

• For children younger than 18 months, discourage the use of screen media other than video-chatting.
• For parents of children 18 to 24 months of age who want to introduce digital media, advise that they choose high-quality programming/apps and use them together with children, because this is how toddlers learn best. Letting children use media by themselves should be avoided.
• In children older than 2 years, limit media to 1 hour or less per day of high-quality programming. Recommend shared use between parent and child to promote enhanced learning, greater interaction, and limit setting.
• Recommend no screens during meals and for 1 hour before bedtime.

Parents often express guilt to providers over undesirable screen time issues with their child, and look to us for support. Advice from author, Lisa Guernsey, recommends that families and early childhood professionals consider the “Three C’s” when determining when and how to use various technologies: content, context and the individual child. Together with families, we can consider the following questions to begin supporting them in implementing the AAP’s recommendations, while keeping technology as a tool on our side.

• We can ask how does the content help children learn, engage, express, imagine, or explore?
• What kinds of social interactions are happening before, during, and after the use of the technology? Does it complement, and not interrupt, children’s learning experiences and natural play patterns?
• Does this technology match with this child’s needs, abilities, interests, and development stage? (Guiding Principles for Use of Technology with Early Learners, 2016)

7 Ways to Support Families and Outcomes Using Technology

Once we’ve evaluated the values of technology per each child’s situation, we can consider employing some of the following strategies for intervention and improvement.

1. Parents can use video chats as a new and exciting way for children to use their language and imitation skills with a variety of people.
2. Show parents how they can engage in an app or screen time activity together with their child to promote quality interactions.
3. At the end of a visit, encourage parents to set a reminder alert in their phone to practice certain strategies or focus on a specific interaction with their child.
4. Recommend apps that educate and support parents in understanding child development, such as: CDC’s Milestone Tracker, VROOM, and HelloJoey.
5. Educate parents about how to evaluate apps/programs for developmental appropriateness.
6. Coach parents in setting boundaries with screen time and managing challenging behaviors that may arise from this. Help them determine specific “screen free” routines throughout the day.
7. Remind parents that no “educational” technology or program is better for their child’s development than regularly engaging in interaction, exploration, and play everyday!

Share your thoughts and experiences below by leaving a comment:

How have you seen screens and technology impacting Early Intervention visits?

Have families ever asked for advice about apps or programs to help their child? How do you or would you respond?

Please share any great technology resources that you have found in the comments too!

References

Guiding Principles for Use of Technology with Early Learners. (2016). Retrieved from https://tech.ed.gov/earlylearning/principles/.

Radesky, J., and Christakis, D. (2016). Media and young minds. Journal of the Academy of Pediatrics, 138(5), doi:10.1542/peds.2016-2591.

Rachel Todd lives in Northern Utah and has worked as a Service Coordinator for the Up to 3 Early Intervention Program since 2017. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Family, Consumer, and Human Development emphasizing in child development and worked with families in Early Head Start programs before joining EI. She is also a graduate student in the Instructional Technology & Learning Sciences program at Utah State University and loves professional development of all forms. Rachel and her husband have a one-year-old son and a spoiled fur baby and love to get outside in the mountains together every chance they get! You can reach Rachel at
rachel.todd@usu.edu

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