Early Intervention Strategies for Success

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

 

Did you know that how a child qualifies for early intervention (EI) differs depending on where he lives?? How do children qualify in your state or country?
Early Intervention Eligibility in the US
In the US, Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act outlines two ways that children qualify for early intervention services: 1) developmental delay in one …

You know the feeling…you see a family you support at the mall or Wal-Mart.  It happens on the weekend or in the evening outside of an intervention visit. In those few seconds before they see you, you have to decide what to do. Do you go over and say “hi” or do you wait to see …

Pick a visit, any visit. Walk in the door and…what are you most likely to see? What’s the most common activity to occur on a visit?

Well, the title of this post surely gave it away, but you are very likely to see the provider and child playing with toys. Why? Why do we still find ourselves sitting on …

You are 20 minutes into the intervention visit when the mother gets a call. Her preschooler’s teacher is calling because the child is ill and needs to be picked up. She asks you if she can just run up the street and pick up her child while you stay with the toddler. You have been …

These past two weeks, we have had the pleasure of hosting Dr. M’Lisa Shelden and Dr. Dathan Rush from the Family Infant and Preschool Program (FIPP) Center for the Advanced Study of Excellence (CASE) in Early Childhood and Family Support Practices for coaching training in two regions of Virginia. Both trainings went exceptionally well and involved lots …

You are 5 minutes from the family’s home and your phone rings. The interpreter who usually meets you there is having car trouble so will miss the visit. You hang up and think “what do I do now?” You visit with Juni’s family every week with the interpreter and feel very comfortable with working with …

Examples of using pausing to encourage development are more powerful than me describing why this technique works so let’s start with a few examples from real intervention visits:
Sandy
One day on a visit with Sandy and her nurse, we played with Sandy’s favorite toy and assisted her as she activated it.  Sandy had multiple disabilities and difficulty with communication. After she …

I think safety is on everyone’s mind this week. Safety is an important issue in early intervention since we so freely visit with people we don’t really know in neighborhoods that range from very safe to places police are wary of going. Above all else, your personal safety is most important. It is more important than …

Figuring out how to measure IFSP outcomes is always the elephant in the room when talking about writing IFSPs. Individualizing outcomes, measuring them, taking the time to make sure they reflect family priorities, trying to write them so that they will meet requirements and make the insurance company happy (at least in Virginia)…all of these important …

The tension builds as you sit in the IFSP meeting…
The discussion began as a celebration of the child’s progress but gradually becomes more tense as the child’s IFSP outcomes are reviewed. As each outcome is discussed, the speech therapist feels that the child has met it but the mother disagrees. She says that the child talks more during the therapy sessions …

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