Early Intervention Services
Dawn: So, now that you've had this conversation with the family, and maybe they are really ready to consider seeking outside services, what happens then? How can you talk to families about that?
Sarah Foster: It depends on the age of the child, obviously. There are a couple of different paths. So, if the child is birth to 3, they would contact their local early intervention agency. If the child is 3 to 5, they would contact – they would just give their local school, the elementary school, a call or contact their local school district. And it's really important to remember that a family does not need a doctor's referral to contact either early intervention or the school district. They simply need to call up and say, "I have concerns about my child's development or behavior, and I'd like my child evaluated to see if they qualify for services, either early intervention or school district services." Hopefully, that streamlines things for families to be able to know that they can call directly. And so, what the agency or the school district would do is they will complete an evaluation of the child to determine if the child is eligible for services. And these evaluations are at no cost to the family, so that is also important to keep in mind.
Kristin: Great, absolutely.
Sarah: And eligibility is based on a developmental delay using standardized testing, or the therapists who are providing the testing can also determine that based on informed clinical opinion, the child would qualify for services.
Kristin: So, when families – you know, families will probably have questions about this whole process, right? The whole time through. Right? And teachers as well. Because a lot of teachers, of course, are not in this sort of early intervention world. So, what can you tell teachers about the details of this whole process? What can a teacher do?
Sarah: So, I can speak to early intervention, since that's where I work. So, once a child is found to be eligible, a family resources coordinator, or FRC, will work with the family to develop an individualized family service plan, or IFSP. And that will address a child's physical, cognitive, communication, social, emotional, and adaptive areas of development. And services on the IFSP can include – we have multiple services. There can be special instruction, family training and counseling and home visits, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy. It's also important to keep in mind that with early intervention, services should occur in the child's natural environment. So, in the home or in the child care, wherever the child is spending their time, the providers would go to that location and provide those services.
As a child begins to get closer to age 3, they would move from early intervention to the school district, and the FRC helps them with that transition process. And they can help provide support either as they transition to a special education preschool, if that's necessary, or other community services. And also, it's important to note that these services, because it's a federal program, these services are provided at, hopefully, a cost that the families can participate in or can afford.
In this round table type discussion, we hear from Sarah Foster and her colleagues about some of the typical steps for accessing early interventions services. This video is part of the Positive Behavior Support module, one of several EarlyEdU Alliance Higher Education Learning Modules.
