Early Intervention Strategies for Success

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

 

Consider bath time for these two families:

Quenton’s bath typically happens right after dinner at about 6:15pm. He has his bath with his older brother each night. Bath time typically lasts a good 30 minutes, time enough for his dad to get both boys washed and then have time to play. Quenton’s father typically plays with the …

About 30 min into your first visit with Mason’s family, his father asks “Will he ever walk?” Mason had a stroke shortly after he was born which affected the left side of his body. He is just under two years old and is beginning to sit with very little support. His father is an athlete …

It’s Thursday, the week’s almost over, and I bet you were just thinking…man, I sure wish I had a few ideas to help (insert child’s name) use his hands to play! 🙂

You may be supporting an infant or toddler who has cerebral palsy or another neurological condition that causes increased muscle tone. If the child has tightly fisted …

We could call this one the “what’s in it for me?” principle. We know how we are…as adults, we usually pay attention to information that is most relevant to our current situation. We tend to remember information that is most immediately useful, skills that get our needs met, and strategies that we can practice right …

Okay, be honest. Have you ever:

recommended that a family go buy books;
explained the importance of sorting colored teddy bears into matching bowls; or
listed “placing shapes in a 3-piece form puzzle” as an outcome on the IFSP.

If you answered yes to any of these, well, then you’re in the same boat as me …

This is the time of year when I can get in a slump. I’ve always loved my jobs in early intervention, but it’s just about now when I get a little jealous of teachers who work in the school system and their countdown til summer break. When I was in grad school eons ago, that …

Miguel is 19 months old and lives with a large family that includes his parents, three older siblings, an aunt, and his grandparents. He qualified for early intervention due to delays in gross motor development and low muscle tone. He’s also showing some slight delays in his expressive communication. During his assessment and subsequent intervention …

During the assessment, the professional team members notice some soft neurological signs in Seiko’s development, such as an indwelling thumb, slight scissoring of her legs, and low muscle tone in her trunk. Seiko was referred to early intervention by her pediatrician because she is 14 months old and not yet sitting or crawling. According to her …

Imagine that, without warning, you lost your job. Without your paycheck, you’ve gotten more and more behind on paying rent until you’re served with an eviction notice. You have two more days until you must leave your apartment and you don’t have enough money for a deposit on a new one. You have no family …

What do you say when a parent asks if she should bite her child back? That’s an easy one for many early interventionists – no, definitely don’t bite the baby back. Knowing what to DO about toddler biting, however, can be more tricky. Let me tell you a story about my son’s first bite…

When my …

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