Sharing What Works in Supporting Infants & Toddlers and the Families in Early Intervention
As an early interventionist, you are in a help giving profession and you want to ensure that you are offering families help that is relevant to the family’s needs. You can achieve that goal by meeting parents where they are when you first engage with them and build from there.
A large component of meeting parents where …
You are committed to helping families practice using intervention strategies during your visits. You truly believe that’s an important part of the intervention process. You’re very aware of your own interactions during visits and try hard not to “hog” all of the child’s attention. You redirect the child’s attention from you back to the parent …
While working through the emotions that come with parenting a child with disabilities, there was also a steep learning curve. A journey of awareness that I had to go through in preparation to parent my child. As the mother of a child with disabilities, my journey has included emotions that many professionals would easily recognize …
Think about the following perspectives during the Assessment for Service Planning and IFSP development process:
Team Members ArriveSC: I arrive to facilitate the assessment for service planning and IFSP development for Jacoby. I meet Franklin, occupational therapist, and Maria, developmental specialist. We all walk in and I introduce Marilyn and Kevin (Jacoby’s mother and father) to Franklin …
On the blog, we often speak from the perspective of the EI professional. Switching up this “voice” a bit is not only fun, but it may help us understand more about the culture of some of our families. The tips I will share are from the millennial parent’s viewpoint in hopes of using their interpretation …
Teaming and collaboration are what we DO, right? We use teaming practices everyday as we connect with other professional team members to support the family in achieving their goals for their child. We understand that we’ll do our best work when we collaborate with caregivers as equal team members, valuing their perspectives and priorities on …
There are many frameworks for leadership but one of my favorite is The FISH! Philosophy. It is a proven way to find joy and energy in our work. The FISH! Philosophy is inspired by a group of fishmongers from Seattle’s Pike Place Fish Market. This team is a shining example of how you can create …
During the intake visit, Elaine explains the early intervention (EI) process to Jaxon’s parents. First, she tells them that they are an equal and valued part of the EI team and she encourages them to be active participants in all aspects of the process. Then, when Jaxon’s father asks which services his son will receive …
Wyatt is a happy 19-month old child who was recently released from the hospital, where he lived for the first 17 months of his life. Wyatt was born very prematurely and has been diagnosed with a visual impairment and cerebral palsy. You want to conduct an assessment to learn about Wyatt’s strengths and needs, especially …
In last week’s post, which was Part 1 in this series, I began trying to translate the DEC Recommended Practices for Interaction into practices we can use with caregivers. Rather than focusing on how we can implement these practices with children, we need to really think about how to help parents, child care providers, siblings, and …
