Imagine: you are sharing your deepest wishes with a trusted friend. You are sharing a cup of coffee on the couch and you feel led to begin a conversation about your goals for the coming New Year. You share your regrets from the past year and your hopes and dreams about how you envision this …
Get the Backstory: Validating and Valuing Family Input
Successfully Engaging Caregivers in the Child Outcomes Summary Process Virtually
Despite not being able to meet in person, tele-intervention (telehealth) has brought new opportunities to think about how we are talking about the child outcome summary process. Let’s be completely honest. Tele-intervention forces us to use good teaming practices because there cannot be any side conversations among professionals and everyone is only able to see …
Introducing Teleflections©: We Are All in This Together
We are all in this together. Early interventionists are exploring and learning new telehealth options. For many, this may mean learning new technology platforms, navigating limited wifi access, and simultaneously focusing on providing exceptional service delivery through telehealth. Teleflections©, a new resource, provide reflections from early interventionists who share their own experiences including their successes …
3 Interventions Every Early Interventionist Needs to Know – Part 1
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 …
Normalization – The Hope Phase
We are nearing the end of our discussion on the levels of awareness of parents of young children with disabilities. We have explored the ostrich phase – a time when a parent has a lack of awareness about disabilities and may not recognize the characteristics of a disability displayed by their child. Additionally, we have …
Extra! Extra! Read All About…Integrating the Decision Tree
Have you heard the news? Assessment teams all over Virginia are integrating the Decision Tree (PDF, New Window) into practice (Drum Roll Please). The Decision Tree is a tool used for teaming and family engagement during the child outcomes summary process.
Let’s imagine that a team from Collaboration County is successfully using the Decision Tree. What …
An Invisible Bridge – Collaborating with Language Interpreters
You know the feeling…wishing you could speak the family’s language so you can build that strong relationship that’s so important in early intervention (EI). It can be challenging to coach a family when you have a language barrier, but a good interpreter can help you overcome that challenge. I recently met a new colleague with …
Special Designation: A Parent’s Aha Moment
In our previous discussion about the levels of awareness for parents of young children with disabilities, we explored the ostrich phase – a time when a parent has a lack of awareness about disabilities and may not recognize the characteristics of a disability displayed by their child.
Today, we are going to explore and discuss a …
The Parent Seems Uncomfortable…What Do You Do?
Maybe you’ve felt this before…you are on a visit and it’s the parent’s turn to practice using an intervention strategy. Perhaps you just modeled it, or you and the parent came up with an idea and want to give it a try. When you ask the parent if she’d like to try it, she averts …