Early Intervention Strategies for Success

Sharing What Works in Supporting Infants & Toddlers and the Families in Early Intervention

 

As the idea of conducting functional assessment takes root here in Virginia, there have been some worries about what it means. Does it mean that we won’t do our more traditional assessment anymore? How will we determine a child’s age-equivalency? How will we get all of the information we need? Who will do the functional …

Last month, we considered the first five DEC Recommended Practices under the Assessment strand. Now, let’s look at practices A6-A11. These practices encourage early interventionists to consider information from a variety of sources about the child’s skills and abilities across different routines, activities, and settings and to do this on an ongoing basis. These practices …

Sofia just coordinated the worst assessment ever. With her head spinning, she takes a moment in her car to reflect on just what went wrong so that she can prevent it from happening again. In a nutshell, here’s what happened:

Sofia had originally met with Max’s father for the intake, who had planned to attend the assessment …

On March 3, 2015, I was honored to present a Talk on Tuesday (ToT) webinar entitled, It’s Almost Never Apraxia: Understanding Appropriate Diagnoses of Speech in Early Intervention, that addressed appropriate diagnoses of speech sound disorders in infants and toddlers.  The participants had some great questions and we wanted to ensure that the conversation continues…so here I am!  My …

Meet Chris – He and his family have moved 7 times since he was born and are now staying with friends. Chris was referred to your program by his mother at the suggestion of her friend’s mom. The referral said that Chris was 29 months old and not walking. When you arrive for the screening, you see …

A set of new referrals comes across your desk: two children in the same family. Twins!  Wow, you think…twice the paperwork, twice the visits, twice the fun. The funny thing is that you probably wouldn’t have balked if you’d just gotten two referrals about children from different families. Why is it that multiples in the same …

On your first visit you ask, “Is Tyler saying any words?” 

“Oh sure, Tyler has lots of words! He can say ball, mama, doggie, outside. He probably says 20-30 words!” his mother replies.

When you ask for more information, you realize that Tyler’s words are almost exclusively said in imitation after his mom prompts him. He only has 2 words that …

Okay, be honest. Have you ever:

recommended that a family go buy books;
explained the importance of sorting colored teddy bears into matching bowls; or
listed “placing shapes in a 3-piece form puzzle” as an outcome on the IFSP.

If you answered yes to any of these, well, then you’re in the same boat as me …

Miguel is 19 months old and lives with a large family that includes his parents, three older siblings, an aunt, and his grandparents. He qualified for early intervention due to delays in gross motor development and low muscle tone. He’s also showing some slight delays in his expressive communication. During his assessment and subsequent intervention …

During the assessment, the professional team members notice some soft neurological signs in Seiko’s development, such as an indwelling thumb, slight scissoring of her legs, and low muscle tone in her trunk. Seiko was referred to early intervention by her pediatrician because she is 14 months old and not yet sitting or crawling. According to her …

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