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 …
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 …
Balloons, cake, friends…who doesn’t like a party? And how many invitations to a child’s birthday party have you received?
In early intervention, we constantly walk that thin line between establishing rapport and maintaining professional boundaries with families. It is important that a collaborative, trusting relationship between family members and early interventionists is established and nurtured. This …
If you haven’t sat in a wet spot yet on a visit, the chances are very likely that you will someday. It just comes with the territory of working with infants and toddlers in natural environments. With infants with reflux, potty-training toddlers and little ones roaming the house with sippy cups, family pets, and other …