On May 1, 2021, Governor Northam proclaimed May as Early Intervention Awareness Month in Virginia. Many EI programs use this month to raise awareness and build relationships with referral sources, physician offices, other community programs, and of course, families. The video What is Early Intervention in Virginia? is often shared widely because it provides an overview explaining what EI is, what it looks like, and how it works. One of the things I love about this video is the opportunity to see and hear from families who have experienced EI. I think family stories are perhaps the most powerful “tools’ we have to build awareness of what EI has to offer. They can help us reach new families and invite them into partnerships with us. Family stories also remind us about why we do what we do. With that in mind, I’m going to share several videos you can use to spread the word about EI from the perspectives of families. If you have other videos you love too, please share the links by leaving a comment below. Here we go!

Reflections during the Final Visit (CO Dept of Education, runtime 5:46)

This video features a mother reflecting on her relationship with the physical therapist who visited her home to support her and her daughter. I think that perhaps, showing what happens at the end of EI, like you’ll hear and see in this video, can help open a doorway to the beginning of EI for another family.

Liam’s Story: A Mother’s Voice (VEIPD, runtime 5:15)

This video also features a mother telling the story of her family’s experience with EI. This story is a powerful reminder of the impact of this work on the daily lives and relationships of families. As an early interventionist, you never know what you might say or do that can have a lifelong impact. EI Awareness Month can be a nice reminder about that too.

Dream Big: A FIT Family Story (FIT FOCUS Video Library, runtime 5:27)

In this video, you’ll hear from a mother and father about how EI worked for them. They explain the emphasis on helping the family help the child. They also describe about how coaching helped them to use strategies in their home during the things they already do rather than adding extra things to do. They also share advice for families to “dream big for your child.” (Due to permission settings, you’ll need to click the “Watch on Vimeo” button below. This video is definitely worth the extra click.)

Parents and Early Intervention (EITP Illinois, runtime 7:59)

I featured this video in another recent post because it’s new. I think it’s worth mentioning again as another resource to share a family’s story. Even though this isn’t a family in VA, I think this family’s message is universal.

That’s just a few of the fantastic family story videos that are floating around the web. If you’d like to see more videos of families in EI, check out the Early Intervention Video Library and look for Families’ Experiences in EI in the menu. You might also find the Early Intervention – General page helpful for sharing info about EI with others.

So what are you doing to celebrate EI Awareness Month? What is your favorite EI family story video?

Share your thoughts, ideas, and video links in the comments below!

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Happy Early Intervention Awareness Month!

This week, Virginia’s governor released his annual proclamation (external website) that we celebrate early intervention in May. This is a great time of year to try to get the word about about early intervention in your locality. Even if you don’t live in Virginia, consider jumping in with us to try to raise awareness of what EI is and how to access it where you are.

Public awareness of early intervention is always an ongoing effort. Finding the time to do it isn’t easy, between intervention visits, meetings, monitoring the budget, staff supervision…the list goes on and on. I’ve found that purposefully planning several times a year to reach out to my referral sources and circulate info about the program was an easy way to focus my efforts. I’ve taken baskets of tea and chocolates to doctor’s office staff, sent mailings to families, visited child care centers, and manned a booth at child health fairs at the mall and community recreation centers. I’ve known others who periodically speak during physician rounds at the local hospital or meet with office managers at pediatric practices.

To help you in your public awareness efforts this month, I thought I’d share some great free resources that you can use to reach families, physicians, and other key referral sources in your community. Please add to the list by sharing what methods you use to get the word out!

Videos

Everyone loves “seeing it” and hearing from families and providers. If they have closed circuit TV in the waiting room, request that your local pediatrician’s office or social services department show one of these videos. Get an EI video played on your local free access TV station. Check out our video: What is Early Intervention in Virginia? below.

This video is 8.45 min long and features families and EI providers talking about what EI is, what it looks like, and why it works. A letter to community partners (PDF, New Window) and guidance for explaining EI (PDF, New Window) are available. If you need this video on a flashdrive or DVR to share, email me (dcchildress@vcu.edu).

Other states have some fantastic videos too: NYC Health: Early Intervention Program, Early Intervention Home Visits (Connecticut), and Early Childhood Intervention is Key (Texas).

If you need a video to support the importance of early childhood intervention, here are four powerful resources. If you haven’t yet, take a few moments and watch.

Handouts & Brochures

Keep handouts for referral sources short and sweet. They likely have very little time to read what you send, so make it count.

What is Early Intervention? (PDF, New Window) – VA brochure, also available in Spanish (PDF, New Window).

Parents are Often the First to Know When Their Baby Needs a Helping Hand: A Checklist for Your Child’s Development from Birth to Age Three (PDF, New Window) – VA resource. Contact local playgroups, parent support groups, mommy & me groups, child care centers, parenting classes, social services, and preschools and request that they distribute this checklist. Be sure to add a sticker with contact info for your local program.

After the NICU: Promoting Your Premature Baby’s Development at Home (PDF, New Window) – VA brochure, also available in Spanish (PDF, New Window). Contact your local NICU to ask if they will share this with families.

The Importance of Early Intervention for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities and their Families (PDF, New Window) (NECTAC/ECTA Center) – Share this document with groups who are unfamiliar with EI, such as with funders.

Additional Ideas

Feed your referral sources – Along with your materials, take them a muffin breakfast, a basket of chocolate, or sandwiches for lunch. People love to snack and may warm up easier if you break the ice with a peace offering.

Regularly connect and check-in with key people – Find out who the office manager is and have a face-to-face meeting to discuss making referrals and answer questions. Other key people might include the physician’s nurse, an agency’s referral coordinator, the social workers at CPS or other DSS programs, lead staff at child care centers, social workers at the local hospital nursery or NICU, local substance abuse counselors, etc. Who are the key people in your locality?

Offer free screenings – Contact child care centers and preschools and offer a morning of free screenings once or twice a year. This takes coordination, but can be a great way to raise awareness among families and teachers.

Advertise your program a positive community resource – Sometimes, EI programs can be viewed as the place you send families who have children with challenges, which is true, but can also make people nervous. Advertise your program as a place where families can get info about infant and toddler development, ask questions, connect to resources, and receive support. Participate in community wellness fairs. Seek out collaborative opportunities with other agencies who serve children and families who may benefit from what you do. Let others know that you are happy to screen any child. Have open arms and be a positive presence in your community, and the word will get out!

What specific activities are you planning to celebrate EI and raise awareness? What have you done in the past that worked well?

Share your ideas in the comments below!

Visit the Early Intervention: What It Is and Why It Works and Resources and Info for Families pages on the VA Early Intervention Professional Development Center site for more info you can use. Visit the Infant and Toddler Connection of Virginia for information about VA’s early intervention system.

The post Celebrate! It’s Early Intervention Awareness Month! appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

I’m so excited to spread the word about our latest video featuring service providers, administrators, and families talking about early intervention! Specifically, the video answers the following 3 questions: What is early intervention? What does it look like? and Why does it work?

In addition to short interviews, the video includes photos and video clips of intervention visits to show families and service providers working together in natural environments. We produced the video at the request of local Part C system managers who asked for resources to help their staff explain early intervention to families, referral sources, and others in the community. English captions are available, and in the near future, we plan to add Spanish captions as well to make the video more widely accessible. The video is available on YouTube and on our VA Early Intervention Professional Development Center website.

Take a look:

How You Can Use this Video in Your Program

To help you think about how you might use this video, even if you aren’t in Virginia, here are a few ideas:

Embed the video on your program’s website – The video provides a wealth of general information that could be useful to new families looking into EI services.

Include the url in public awareness materials and information provided to families at the intake – If your program has brochures or parent information handouts, add the video title, url, and description (which you can find on the VEIPD Videos page).

Require that all new service providers and service coordinators watch it – Add the video to your new staff orientation checklist.

Share the link with referral sources – Invite pediatrician or social services offices who offer TVs in their waiting areas to show the video periodically throughout the day. Ask them to include the url in the information they give to families when a referral is being considered or is made to EI.

Share the link with your local public access TV station – Some local public access stations might be able to play the video when requested by community agencies. This could be a wonderful local public awareness/child find activity.

Guidance will be coming out soon with additional ideas for how to use this video to spread the word about early intervention in your community so stay tuned. We’d love to get YOUR ideas too!

What are some ways you envision using a video resource like this?? Share your ideas in the comments below!

For more free videos about early intervention, be sure to visit our Videos page!

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Here in VA, we are so excited to release our new video series entitled Early Intervention: A Routines-Based Approach! These videos were professionally produced, are less than 7 min each, and are available for FREE on our professional development website or on our YouTube site. I’m going to give you a quick description of each video below. I encourage you to watch them, use them, and of course give us feedback! After the embedded videos, you’ll also find 3 ideas for how you can use them for staff development. Enjoy!

Early Intervention: A Routines-Based Approach – Part 1: Traditional vs. Routines

This 5 min video is the first in the series and features an experienced early interventionist sharing her personal journey from a traditional, clinical approach to one focusing on family routines and activities as the context for effective early intervention.

Early Intervention: A Routines-Based Approach – Part 2: What Intervention Can – and Should – Look Like

This video is about 7 minutes long and features three early interventionists discussing and demonstrating what intervention looks like when it is provided by collaborating with families during their natural routines and activities. Examples of parent-provider collaboration during a trip to a restaurant and visits in families’ homes are shown.

Early Intervention: A Routines-Based Approach – Part 3: Changing the Mindset

This video is under 5 minutes and focuses on insights from the three early interventionists about how they evolved their practices toward a more effective, routines-based intervention approach.

Three Ideas for Using these Videos

If you are a program supervisor or trainer, here are a few ideas about how you might use these videos for staff development:

Idea #1: Group Staff Development – Plan a staff development activity across 3 staff meetings. Watch one video each meeting and reflect together on where individual and program-wide practices are on a continuum of traditional to routines-based intervention.

Idea #2: Training Activity – Have participants bring contact notes or descriptions of recent intervention visits. Collect the contact notes and shuffle them. Watch the first two videos and break the participants into small groups. Each group gets three randomly-chosen contact notes to review and discuss. They can compare and contrast the visit activities with the practices shown and discussed in the videos. You might also ask them what suggestions would they have for that interventionist for the next visit to try to use more routines-based practices. No one has to “fess” up and own the contact note but everyone can learn from them. Wrap-up the activity with the third video.

Idea #3: Individual Staff Supervision – Use these videos with individuals in your program who are struggling with adopting these practices. Rather than doing this as a group activity, watch the first video together with the individual and reflect together on the person’s current practices. Ask him to watch the 2nd video by himself and reflect on it in writing. You could create a compare and contrast handout for him to use during the week to reflect on his visits and what practices he uses. You could also tie this to a discussion and compare/contract activity using the 7 Key Principles: Looks Like/Doesn’t Look Like (PDF, New Window) document from the ECTA Center. Review the reflection together and watch the third video. Come up with a plan for “changing the mindset” with suggested readings, maybe have him join visits with others who are using routines-based practices, etc. Follow-up on the plan in supervision and provide lots of support along the way.

What other ideas do you have for using these videos for staff development??

Special heartfelt thanks to the early interventionists and families who shared their experiences with us!!

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