I’ve been thinking a lot about routines-based intervention lately. In particular, I’ve been thinking about (and experiencing) what happens when a family doesn’t invite you into their daily routines. What do you do when the space the family makes available to you is small? Not physical space, but family life space. When the only activity …
An Early Interventionist’s Internal Struggle
An Invisible Bridge – Collaborating with Language Interpreters
You know the feeling…wishing you could speak the family’s language so you can build that strong relationship that’s so important in early intervention (EI). It can be challenging to coach a family when you have a language barrier, but a good interpreter can help you overcome that challenge. I recently met a new colleague with …
The Parent Seems Uncomfortable…What Do You Do?
Maybe you’ve felt this before…you are on a visit and it’s the parent’s turn to practice using an intervention strategy. Perhaps you just modeled it, or you and the parent came up with an idea and want to give it a try. When you ask the parent if she’d like to try it, she averts …
4 Strategies to Help You Stay in Your Lane During EI Visits
You are committed to helping families practice using intervention strategies during your visits. You truly believe that’s an important part of the intervention process. You’re very aware of your own interactions during visits and try hard not to “hog” all of the child’s attention. You redirect the child’s attention from you back to the parent …
The Struggle is Real…Important
It’s Thursday afternoon and I’m banging my head on the steering wheel after my home visit. Why? Because I’ve spent the last hour coaching this family to stop giving their two year old a bottle when she can drink from a sippy cup, straw, and an open cup. It’s not like we haven’t worked on …
11 Things a Millennial Parent Wished a Generation-X EI Provider Knew
On the blog, we often speak from the perspective of the EI professional. Switching up this “voice” a bit is not only fun, but it may help us understand more about the culture of some of our families. The tips I will share are from the millennial parent’s viewpoint in hopes of using their interpretation …
DEC Recommended Practices: Teaming and Collaboration
Teaming and collaboration are what we DO, right? We use teaming practices everyday as we connect with other professional team members to support the family in achieving their goals for their child. We understand that we’ll do our best work when we collaborate with caregivers as equal team members, valuing their perspectives and priorities on …
Oops…Guess What I Forgot?
Ever had one of those experiences where you realize that, while you think you did your best, you completely forgot what you were supposed to do? Ever had that experience on an intervention visit?
I had that experience recently…I was on a first visit with a family and was planning to set the stage for how …
DEC Recommended Practices – Interaction (Part 2)
In last week’s post, which was Part 1 in this series, I began trying to translate the DEC Recommended Practices for Interaction into practices we can use with caregivers. Rather than focusing on how we can implement these practices with children, we need to really think about how to help parents, child care providers, siblings, and …
DEC Recommended Practices – Interaction (Part 1)
When we whittle early intervention down to its core, I think it’s all about interactions. Interactions between the child and caregiver, first and foremost…interactions between the child and the environment (toys, sofa cushions, spoons and cups, buttons on the TV remote, the family dog)…interactions between the EI practitioner and caregiver that facilitate positive interactions with …