During the past year, our world has overturned with public health concerns, teleworking from home, social distancing, and childcare facility closures.  As this shift has occurred, we as EI providers have naturally adjusted to our new reality. However, some of these exact safety measures meant to keep the public safe has created a daunting reality of under-reported cases of child abuse or neglect.

Statistics show a drastic decline of child abuse reports since the start of the pandemic:

According to The Washington Post, “In the nation’s capital, hotline reports of abuse and neglect between mid-March and mid-April were 62 percent lower than in the same period last year, according to the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency. Reports to child protective services in Maryland have fallen just as far, and in Virginia, referrals from school staffers have dipped by 94 percent.” (Schmidt & Natanson, 2020)

It is easy to overlook such a scenario, because decreased child abuse reports are a good thing, right? On the contrary, experts will tell you otherwise. Children without routine encounters from childcare providers, health professionals, and other social advocates lead to emergency room visits due to severe injuries from abuse. Fewer cases are brought in for immediate medical attention until the severity of their injuries are no longer concealable.   

As EI providers, we must be more alert towards the signs of abuse and neglect in our client’s homes. For some families, our tele-therapy sessions are their only lifelines for social support.

How Can We Help?

How can we help those children who are isolated, cut off from childcare providers, social contacts, or protection services?

As mandated reporters, we have a duty to uphold when we see suspected abuse or neglect in the children we serve. During this time when face to face visits are at a halt or at limited capacity, it is even more important to check in with our families through virtual sessions or over the phone.

What to do if you witness a parent display abusive or aggressive behavior towards a child during a telehealth session?

• Avoid judging remarks or facial expressions
• Re-direct and diffuse the conversation in a positive manner not to escalate the situation
• Discuss what positive behaviors that you have observed from the child to highlight their strengths
• Offer positive reinforcement strategies for challenging behaviors
• Check in with the parent to see if they are in need of community support or other resources

If you suspect or witness child abuse or neglect, call your local department of social services or child protective services. If there is evidence of immediate harm or threat to the child and/or family member, CALL THE POLICE.

Share some strategies or tips below in the comments about how you check in with the child and family’s wellbeing during your EI telehealth visits. 

Resources:

Virginia Department of Social Services

Virginia Child Protective Services: 1-800-552-7096

Out-of-State Child Protective Services: 804-786-8536

SCAN of Northern Virginia (Stop Child Abuse Now)

Reference:

Schmidt, S., & Natanson, H. (2020, April 30). With kids stuck at home, ER doctors see more severe cases of child abuse. The Washington Post.

Sarah Kim has been an occupational therapist for over 12 years. She currently works in early intervention for the Infant and Toddler Connection of Fairfax- Falls Church. She also volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for SCAN (Alexandria/Arlington). Email Sarah at: sarah.kim2@fairfaxcounty.gov

The post The Unspoken Realities of Child Abuse during a Pandemic appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

When talking to parents and caregivers, it can be helpful to ask them what they know about temperament and assess their understanding of how their temperament matches (or doesn’t match!) their child’s. Parents may be able to talk about their child’s response to different environments, sensory preferences or reaction to change and may not have thought about their own response. Parents and caregivers may not be able to recognize ways in which their own temperaments impact the behavior of their child.

What is Temperament?

Temperament is generally defined as consistent individual differences in behavior that are biologically based and are relatively independent of learning, system of values and attitudes. One key concept to remember is that temperament is biologically based, not made up of characteristics that are chosen. As such, an individual does not have the ability to change their temperament but rather use their knowledge to adapt to the environment. As an example, for individuals who become overwhelmed by noise, the volume of the television or radio could be turned down, voice tones can be adapted and strategies for calming in loud environments can be taught. Conflict can arise in the parent-child relationship when a parent perceives a child is acting in a particular way “on purpose” or “to make them (the parent) upset.” It is important to recognize that a child’s behavior is often a reflection of his or her temperament. Like many other developmental skills, parents need to be able to teach their children how to appropriately respond to their internal triggers.

Parent and caregiver understanding of how to support a child’s temperament style is crucial in the development of social-emotional skills. When parents can help children adapt to their environment and understand their own preferences, children will be better prepared to adapt to different environments using coping skills and resources available.

Having Conversations about the Parent’s Temperament

I often get questions about how to have conversations with parents and caregivers about temperament. Beginning by asking questions can be a good place to start. Helping parents to gain insight about their own temperament can help them to be more in tune with the actions of their child. Oftentimes, parents have insight into their child but may not have thought about their own preferences or strengths. Parents may not recognize the role that their temperament plays in the dynamic of the relationship with their child. Some questions that could be helpful to ask parents include:

• How do you manage your emotions?
• What are your sensory preferences (e.g. light, sound, etc.)?
• How do you respond to change?
• How do you communicate your wants and needs?

When parents and children have mismatched temperaments, strain in the parent-child relationship can be magnified. Parents may incorrectly attribute differences in interaction style to a child’s developmental delay, ascribing intent behind behavior or believing a child can simply change his or her temperament. Parents may not be aware of their own needs or have the capacity to understand how to adjust in order to have their needs met. When mismatched temperaments are not understood, parents may expect more of their child or believe that their child can change their behavior independently. This can lead to frustration and increased stress for parents. In addition, parents may feel as though they do not have the ability to meet their child’s needs or parent effectively. Children rely on their parents to be emotional co-regulators. This means that especially when children are young, they look to their parents to model how to manage uncomfortable emotions, changes to routine and internal triggers. When parents are calm, children can de-escalate more quickly. As children learn to understand their own temperaments, they can build their abilities to navigate different situations and interactions and become more effective in developing social-emotional regulation.

Talking about the Child’s Temperament

As providers, when parents talk about the ways in which they interact with their children, we can then begin to ask questions to help identify children’s temperament styles and explore which interventions are available to build family capacity. Once a parent can begin tuning in to the child’s unique temperament, the parent can then work to develop strategies for supporting the child’s needs. Here are some questions that you could help the parent to consider when trying to understand their child’s temperament:

• How does my child express their feelings?
• How does my child engage in play?
• How does my child respond when they experience discomfort?
• How does my child react to change?
• What does my child do when going through transitions?

When parents are in tune with their child’s temperament, they are able to support their child’s behavior more effectively. Parents can then understand their child’s needs to provide opportunities for learning new coping skills.

When children are young, it is important for parents to give a lot of support in helping their work through challenges. As children get older and can understand their own temperament style and what they need to be successful, the interactions become more balanced. When parents and caregivers are able to understand the ways in which temperament plays a role in the behavior and interactions of their children, stress is reduced and successful intervention strategies can be realized.

Now that you have some more tools to understand temperament, how can you help parents recognize and respond to their child’s unique characteristics?

Share your ideas by leaving a comment below!

For more information about this topic, check out Naomi’s 2-part webinar series on the VA Early Intervention Professional Development Center:

Foundations of Social Emotional Development: Temperament – Part II

Foundations of Social Emotional Development: Attachment – Part I

Also, be sure to visit the Social-Emotional Development topic page!

Naomi Grinney, LCSW has worked in early intervention for the past five years. Prior to working in EI, Naomi worked as a community-based mental health crisis response provider, as social worker in a psychiatric hospital and as a behavioral interventionist at a residential treatment center. Naomi is passionate about supporting the social emotional development of children and building family capacity and has worked with kids and families for twenty years. As the parent of a child who received Early Intervention services, Naomi brings a unique perspective to her role in providing tools and resources to empower parents in supporting their child’s development. Naomi can be reached at naomi.grinney@fairfaxcounty.gov. 

The post Temperament and Social Emotional Development appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

So far in this series, you’ve learned about the importance of two interventions associated with positive outcomes for children and families. In Part 1, we explored strategies that emphasize caregivers’ awareness and interpretation of their own actions. In Part 2, you learned how to help caregivers identify and use everyday learning opportunities to enhance child development. Now, let’s focus on the third intervention: supporting caregivers’ responsiveness to their children (Dunst & Trivette, 2009; Mahoney, 2009; Swanson, Raab, & Dunst, 2011). For some caregivers, responsiveness comes naturally, especially when there is naturally a good fit between how the child interacts and communicates and how the caregiver parents. When it doesn’t come naturally or the caregiver struggles with responsiveness, it can have a significant impact on the parent-child relationship and the child’s development. Let’s think more about what this looks like and what you can do to support responsive interactions.

Supporting Caregivers’ Responsiveness to their Children

Responsiveness – how a parent or caregiver responds to and meets the needs of a child – has been found to have significant connections to communication and social-emotional development during early childhood (Mahoney, 2009). Responsiveness is one of those concepts that we know when we see it. We know it when we see a mother who reads her child’s cues, even the subtle ones, like when he shifts his gaze to make a choice about which book he wants her to read. We see it when a father hears his baby cry and immediately picks her up, bounces her and pats her back while soothing her with his voice. We see it when a childcare provider uses a warm expression and voice to calm a toddler then invite him into a turn-taking game of blowing bubbles. All of these interactions teach young children that they are important, that adults care, and that their attempts to communicate and engage with others and the environment have meaning.   

Responsiveness is also something that jumps right out at us when it’s not there. Think of the grandmother who ignores her grandson’s vocalizations because he “doesn’t make sense” and who swats him when he acts out from frustration. Think about the mother who misreads her daughter’s arching back and gaze aversion as a personal offense, which negatively impacts their attachment to each other. Or, consider the father whose depression makes it hard for him to respond to his child’s needs consistently or at all. There are many factors that can interfere with a caregiver’s ability to be responsive, and truthfully, we are not always able to mitigate them. We can, however, keep our eyes on responsiveness and encourage it, celebrate it, teach it, and praise it whenever we have the opportunity.

What Does This LOOK Like in Practice?

Here are a few strategies you can use to support responsive interactions between caregivers and children:

Label it when you see it – When you notice a parent being responsive, talk about it. Describe what you saw the parent do and how the child responded. Ask the parent questions to help her identify responsiveness and the impact, such as “What did you do that made Elena smile?” or “What did Elena do after you smiled at her?” Point out the delight the child showed when her parent interacted with her and praise the parent’s efforts.

Model and facilitate contingent interactions – In the context of interacting with the parent and the child together, model contingent interactions that are responsive to the child’s communication and social cues. Talk about what you are doing and why. Coach the parent to notice the child’s communication attempts, movements, or behaviors and help him/her interpret them with meaning. Point out what the child did before and after the interaction and talk about what the parent could do to respond, keep the interaction going, help the child be successful, etc. Just be careful to turn the interaction back over to the parent after modeling so he/she can practice engaging the child. You may be great at using a responsive strategy but that only matters if the parent can learn from you and use the strategy successfully with the child.

Use your voice and facial expressions – Affect is an important part of responsiveness (Mahoney, 2009). Using a warm voice and expressive facial expressions that convey that you are present, engaged, interested, and enjoying the child send an important message. Talk about the importance of affect and provide specific feedback to parents when they are using their affect in responsive ways. This is especially important when interacting with children who struggle with social-communication or who have sensory differences.

Encourage imitation and turn-taking – Use imitation and turn-taking as the vehicles for building responsiveness. When a caregiver struggles with responsiveness, help her understand the back-and-forth nature of interactions and communication. Use simple turn-taking games to entice the parent and child into interactions. Look for turn-taking games that they can enjoy and sustain (for a reasonable amount of time depending on the child’s age and developmental level). Start small, with the parent imitating the child’s actions or sounds, and shape these interactions into turn-taking. Help the parent look for ways he can take a turn whenever the child does something and vice versa. Encourage the parent to expect, wait for, and prompt the child to respond whenever there is an opportunity. Responsiveness is reciprocal but the parent sets the tone.

All three of the interventions you’ve learned about in this series have responsiveness at their core. When caregivers are more aware of how important their own actions and interactions are, understand the learning opportunities they can facilitate during daily interactions, and recognize how to engage and respond to their children to facilitate development, you increase the chances of intervention happening everyday. You also help build stronger parent-child relationships that last well beyond EI. Like I said before, that’s powerful stuff.

Now it’s your turn.

What is your favorite strategy for supporting caregiver responsiveness?

Share your ideas in the comments below!

References:

Dunst, C. J., & Trivette, C. M. (2009). Using research evidence to inform and evaluate early childhood intervention practices. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 29(1), 40-52.

Mahoney, G. (2009). Relationship-focused intervention (RFI): Enhancing the role of parents in children’s developmental intervention. International Journal of Early Childhood Special Education, 1(1), 79-94.

Swanson, J., Raab, M., & Dunst, C. J. (2011). Strengthening family capacity to provide young children everyday natural learning opportunities. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 9(1), 66-80.

The post 3 Interventions Every Early Interventionist Needs to Know – Part 3 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

The post Technology and Toddlerhood appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

In Part 1 of this series, you learned about the first intervention, which focuses on the caregiver’s awareness and interpretation of his or her own actions. This first intervention emphasizes (to us and the caregiver) the power the caregiver has to positively impact the child’s development through interaction and action. In Part 2, we’re going to dive a little deeper and think about the context of those actions and interactions – where and when learning occurs.

Helping Caregivers Identify & Use Everyday Learning Opportunities

Our second intervention emphasizes the importance of helping caregivers identify and use everyday learning opportunities to enhance child development (Dunst & Trivette, 2009; Mahoney, 2009; Swanson, Raab, & Dunst, 2011). This intervention reminds us that the context for most of the learning a child will do is within his or her interactions with the people and the environment that are most familiar and most constant. We can collaborate with caregivers by respecting what is already happening in the natural environment and helping them notice and take advantage of interactions and opportunities that help the child learn or practice using a skill. When learning is situated in a naturally occurring, familiar context, there are more opportunities for the child and caregiver to practice what they are learning together every day beyond the EI visit. The cognitive load is also decreased since the context is familiar, hopefully making it easier to use a new intervention strategy (for the caregiver) and learn a new skill (for the child). Practice during infant and toddler development is essential so the more opportunities we can help the caregiver provide, the better!

What Does This LOOK LIKE in Practice?

Here are a few excellent strategies you can use to implement this intervention. These strategies were suggested by EI service providers in conference sessions on this topic:

Use the unique interests of the child and the caregiver as your guide. Ask caregivers what they enjoy doing with the child. Ask about the typical flow of the day. Ask about what makes the child laugh (or feel frustrated, excited, engaged, motivated, etc.). Find out what they would like to be able to do together and what that would look like if it worked well. Build on what you find out by observing those activities and routines, talking about the learning opportunities you see, and helping the caregiver learn to seize them.

Individualize IFSP outcomes and goals by including specific learning opportunities that already exist for the family. Ground the outcomes in the context of everyday activities. If the outcome describes how the child will learn to move about independently, place the measurement of the outcome in a typical activity. For example, let’s say that the child will move about her home independently by crawling or walking 10 feet from the kitchen to the family room after each meal. When she can do this consistently across time, we’ll know she’s met the outcome. Plus, the family can see the progress because they can practice the movement strategies in a frequently occurring context that’s natural for them. Including context in outcomes helps families identify with their important role in intervention from the beginning. Individualizing outcomes is a great place to start with building awareness (our first intervention) too.

Observe and join different activities and routines to help the caregiver look for the learning opportunities. There is nothing as effective as “seeing it.” Whenever you can, sit back and observe parent-child interactions and specific routines that are meaningful, problematic, or just typical for the family. Point out learning opportunities that you see. Reflect with caregivers to help them create their own ideas. Encourage them to try out the strategies that come from these conversations while you observe again, provide support, problem-solve, and share feedback.

After the caregiver practices using a strategy, talk about how to extend the use of the strategy in other routines to create more learning opportunities. You can facilitate this thinking process by asking, “When do you think you can use this strategy outside of the visit today? What other times of the day might work for using the strategy?” If needed, ask about other routines you know about and help the caregiver think about how the strategy could be embedded. Have the conversation and land on a joint plan. By doing this, you may be expanding the caregiver’s thinking, which again, overlaps with our first intervention. See, this is powerful stuff.

Now it’s your turn:

What’s your favorite way of helping caregivers identify and use natural learning opportunities? What did this look like on your last visit?

Share your ideas and examples in the comments below! And don’t miss Part 3, the final post in this series!

References:

Dunst, C. J., & Trivette, C. M. (2009). Using research evidence to inform and evaluate early childhood intervention practices. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 29(1), 40-52.

Mahoney, G. (2009). Relationship-focused intervention (RFI): Enhancing the role of parents in children’s developmental intervention. International Journal of Early Childhood Special Education, 1(1), 79-94.

Swanson, J., Raab, M., & Dunst, C. J. (2011). Strengthening family capacity to provide young children everyday natural learning opportunities. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 9(1), 66-80.

The post 3 Interventions Every Early Interventionist Needs to Know – Part 2 appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

Okay, when you read that title, maybe you were curious, wondering if you were going to learn about three new discoveries that will make your job easier. Or, maybe you did a quick eyeroll, thinking “Here we go, the next big ‘thing’ that I need to do.” Either way, I’m glad you’re here. While I’m not sure that these three interventions will make your job easier, I do think they can make your work more effective. No, these interventions aren’t new or the next big “thing,” but they are based on the evidence we have about what early interventionists do that has a positive impact on child and family outcomes – meaning child development is enhanced, children learn and participate in everyday activities, families understand how to help their children, and quality of life is improved. One of the key aspects of these three interventions is YOU – how you interact with families and what you do to support parent-child interaction. You are a key, so read on and learn what you can do on your next visit to have that positive impact.

Here we go. Interventions that:

1. Emphasize caregivers’ awareness and interpretation of their own actions,
2. Help caregivers identify and use everyday learning opportunities to enhance child development, and
3. Support caregivers’ responsiveness to their children

have been found to be most effective in positively impacting child outcomes (Dunst & Trivette, 2009; Mahoney, 2009; Swanson, Raab, & Dunst, 2011). That’s big stuff. In this post, I’ll tackle what the first intervention looks like in practice. I’ll discuss the other two interventions in Parts 2 and 3.

Emphasize Caregivers’ Awareness and Interpretation of their own Actions

When you implement this intervention, you go deeper than just modeling or teaching caregivers intervention strategies. You approach intervention from the perspective of expanding how the caregiver thinks about her (or his) capabilities, her impact on her child’s development, and the positive effects of her everyday interactions with her child. Some caregivers come to EI already embracing their influence as the parent, but many are in the vulnerable position of being a new parent or a parent of a child with strengths and needs that are different from what they expected or previously experienced with other children. Early intervention can be a new window through which to see a child’s potentialities, and we can open that window with how we approach the support we provide.

I truly believe that it’s not enough to tell families that “you are the expert on your child.” Those can be empty words if we don’t back them up with support that builds on what caregivers already know and do. We need to convey, through practice and intentional interactions, that the parent is just the right person to help her child grow and learn, she is enough, and what she does really matters. She may not have entered the program knowing how to stretch her child, how to prompt her child to increase vocabulary, how to teach her child to sign, or how to regulate herself so that her child learns to manage his emotions – and that’s all okay. We are there to teach, guide, and help the caregiver become aware of, embrace, and learn to interpret the link between her actions and her child’s behaviors, interactions, and learning. That’s a deeper level of engaging families, a level at the core of who a parent is. Full disclosure – I don’t think this is easy (often it’s not), but I completely believe that if we walk in the door of every visit with the perspective that we are there to look for opportunities to build the caregiver’s awareness of her own actions and help her learn to interpret that impact, what we do and how we do it changes – for the better.

What Does This LOOK LIKE in Practice?

Here are some strategies I’ve learned from EI practitioners in recent conference sessions where we talked about this intervention:

Use open-ended questions to help the caregiver reflect and think about what she (or he) is doing and why. Ex: What did you notice…? What did you see Jack do when you…? Why do you think that happened? 
What did you do differently that time? What could you do differently next time to help Jack learn to…?

Look for moments to build awareness and interpretation. Keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities to point out those moments when the caregiver interacts with the child in ways that enhances development. Adult learners typically want to know if they are doing something “right” so reinforcing positive interactions helps caregivers know they are on the right track.

Provide specific feedback that points out what the caregiver did, what the child did, and the relationship between the two actions. Help the caregiver make the connection, then ask what she thinks about it. Ex: When you waited before helping Emma stand up, she reached up for the pack ‘n play bar to try to stand herself up. What did you think about that?

Use video recordings to build awareness and interpretation. Record the caregiver using a strategy with her child using her cell phone. Then, watch the video together and process it using reflection and feedback. Share what you notice and ask the caregiver about her observations and feelings. Problem-solve if the strategy or interaction can be tweaked to help the caregiver get closer to her goal for the child. You can also encourage the caregiver to record short videos between visits to watch together during the next visit. These videos can become joint plans and records of progress too, so their value (and the learning opportunity) expands beyond the reflection point that happens during your visit.

Now it’s your turn:

What strategies have you used to build caregivers’ awareness and ability to interpret their own actions? What did this look like on your last visit?

Share your ideas and examples in the comments below!

In Part 2, I’ll dig into the second intervention to explore how to help caregivers identify and use every day learning opportunities…and what to do when this is hard. In the meantime, pay attention to how you build awareness on your next visit. Use this series to help you celebrate when it goes well and problem-solve when you need help. Let’s learn together!

References:

Dunst, C. J., & Trivette, C. M. (2009). Using research evidence to inform and evaluate early childhood intervention practices. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 29(1), 40-52.

Mahoney, G. (2009). Relationship-focused intervention (RFI): Enhancing the role of parents in children’s developmental intervention. International Journal of Early Childhood Special Education, 1(1), 79-94.

Swanson, J., Raab, M., & Dunst, C. J. (2011). Strengthening family capacity to provide young children everyday natural learning opportunities. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 9(1), 66-80.

The post 3 Interventions Every Early Interventionist Needs to Know – Part 1 appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

You may have seen that awesome clip in the news recently of the father having an animated conversation with his 18-month old son. (If not, click the link and it will make your day!) Not only is it completely adorable, but it’s also a perfect example of a concept called “conversational turn-taking.”

Turn-taking is one of those early, essential skills that develops in the context of caregiving relationships. We early interventionists are always watching to see if a child can engage with another person in turn-taking. We know that turn-taking is important for early cognitive, communication, and social-emotional development and that it starts with imitation. Imitation and (eventually) turn-taking happen naturally in the context of silly games, making animal sounds while looking at books, playing with toys, eating a meal, learning how to get dressed, watching TV together, etc. When it happens in the context of early conversation between a very young child and a caregiver, turn-taking can a critical building block for communication.

How critical? Let’s find out.

Source: Gilkerson, J. Richards, J. A., Warren, S. F., Oller, D. K., Russo, R., & Vohr, B. (2018). Language experience in the second year of life and language outcomes in late childhood. Pediatrics, 142(4). Retrieved from https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/142/4/e20174276.full.pdf (PDF, New Window)

Research: What Do We Know?

In this study, Gilkerson and her colleagues examined the relationship between conversational turn-taking in 146 infants and toddlers and parents and the children’s later IQ, receptive, and expressive communication. In Phase I of the study, data was initially collected when these children were mostly between the ages of 2- to 36-months of age using a recording system that captured communication in the infant’s or toddler’s environment. This system then automatically counted conversational turns (between the parent and child), adult word count (both overheard and words directed to the child), and child vocabulary. Children were evaluated to determine their expressive and receptive language abilities, and parents completed an inventory to estimate the child’s vocabulary size. In Phase II, families in the first phase were invited to have their children (ages 9-13 years old) participate in follow-up cognitive and language assessments.

Data from Phases I and II were statistically analyzed to look for correlations. The strongest relationship was found between conversational turn-taking and adult word count occurring when children were between 18-24 months old; both were predictive of child outcomes 10 years later. However, when controlling for socio-economic status, the relationship between adult word count and child outcomes was much weaker.

Here’s the big take-away: Overall, conversational turn-taking that occurred with toddlers between 18-24 months of age and their parents showed the strongest relationship to later child outcomes, specifically related to IQ, vocabulary, and language skills at ages 9-13 years old. These findings suggest that how parents engage their 18-24 month old toddlers in turn-taking may be related to the child’s cognitive and communication development 10 years down the road. Wow.

Practice: How Can You Use What You Know

So what does this really mean? The quality of how a caregiver talks with (not to) a toddler in the 18-24 month age range may have a significant impact on that child’s later IQ, his ability to comprehend language, and his overall expressive and receptive language skills. This is probably not that surprising for us in EI, but when you think about it, this impact is amazing. Not only is the amount of words a child hears important, but the opportunities for the child to engage, back-and-forth, with an adult in a conversational manner are essential, especially while toddlers are developing their early abilities to talk.

Here are a few strategies to help you use what you now know:

Build parent responsiveness

Help parents recognize communication cues from infants and older toddlers who are still learning to talk. Point out the child’s attempts to communicate, whether by eye gaze, gesture, body movement, or sound. Model for parents how to respond and provide positive, specific feedback when the parent responds to the child’s communication (e.g., “Wow, when Taylor said “ka” you knew exactly what she wanted! When you said “cup” back to her, you gave her a great example of how the word sounds!”)

Build turn-taking skills with actions and sounds

Encourage parents to always pair sounds/words with actions when playing turn-taking games with their children. Rolling a ball back and forth or blowing soap bubbles could be paired with fun sounds or repetitive words like “ready, set, go!” or “your turn!” and “my turn!”

Encourage parents to have conversations with their infants and toddlers – often!

Model how this sounds and praise it when you see it happening between the parent and child. Assure them that even if they feel silly talking to a child who can’t “talk” yet, they are teaching their child about how words sound, what words mean, and how to use sounds and words to communicate with others. Conversational turn-taking also teaches the child what may be the most important lesson of all – that the child is valued and loved. Use video examples like the fantastic clip mentioned above to see these conversations in action!

My biggest take away from this article (and that amazing dad) is that it’s not always about the number of words a young child hears. What may be even more important is the quality of the interaction. Conversations matter – even and maybe especially with toddlers!

What are your favorite strategies to encourage conversational turn-taking between parents and their babies?

Share your ideas in the chat below!

The post EI Research to Practice Brief #7 – Conversational Turn-Taking between 18-24 Months Really Matters appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.