Understanding Early Intervention

Early Intervention

• Early intervention identifies and supports children and young people at risk of poor outcomes
• It prevents problems or addresses them early to mitigate worsening conditions
• Aims to cultivate personal strengths and skills for adulthood
• Can include home visiting programs, support for vulnerable parents, school programs, and mentoring
• Effective at any point during childhood and adolescence

Four Key Aspects of Child Development

• Physical: health, maturation, and presence/absence of disability.
• Targets include improved birth outcomes, reduced infectious diseases, and decreased childhood obesity
• Cognitive: speech, language, reading, writing, numeracy, and problem-solving skills.
• Targets include standardized test performance, school achievement, and access to higher education and employment
• Behavioral: ability to monitor and regulate behavior, attention, and impulses.
• Targets include reducing antisocial behaviors, violence, and aggression
• Social and emotional: awareness of emotional needs, self-esteem, and ability to manage negative feelings.
• Targets include increasing pro-social behavior, improving self-esteem, and reducing mental health problems

Typical Learners

• Gather, organize, and code information from their environment
• Relate new information to prior knowledge, noting similarities and differences
• Store information for future use
• Demonstrate learning through observable behaviors

Developmental Milestones

• Skills and abilities used to gauge child development, following a known and predictable course
• Include crawling, walking, saying single words, combining words, and following directions
• Categories of behaviors include: cognition, language, motor coordination, social interaction, and adaptive skills
• Children develop at their own pace, but within an expected time-frame
• Developmental milestones are charted to map a child's developmental course

Individual Variation

• Some children may excel in oral language, while others focus on motor skills
• Strengths in one area may be offset by slower development in another

Influence of Culture and Environment

• Cultural and environmental factors significantly impact development
• Acceptable behaviors vary across environments
• Differences in behavior do not always reflect differences in development

Supporting Children Learning a Foreign Language

• Explain concepts with models or multi-sensory materials
• Facilitate vocabulary with pictures and verbal cues
• Provide non-verbal opportunities to demonstrate understanding
• Offer alternate ways for children to communicate and participate

Atypical Development

• Behaviors that fall outside the normal or expected range of development, emerging at a different rate or pace
• Note the time skills emerge, the sequence of skill development, and the quality of skill level
• Atypical behaviors should be carefully recorded to identify potential problems
• Monitor dates/times of occurrence, duration/frequency, activity type, settings, and interactions with peers

Evidence-Based Early Intervention

• Rigorous evaluation of programs to determine effectiveness in improving child outcomes
• Provides information for future policy, funding, and service design decisions
• Early intervention addresses problems as soon as possible to prevent them from becoming difficult to reverse
• Focuses on childhood adversity and trauma, which are linked to health and social problems later in life

Government's Role in Early Intervention

• Prioritizes early intervention and addresses childhood adversity and trauma
• Sets a national strategy to empower local authorities to deliver effective and sustainable interventions
• Provides oversight and ensures local authorities are held accountable
• Supports data collection and analysis to monitor impacts and identify families in need

Data Collection and Analysis

• Promotes data collection and provides examples of good practice
• Identifies measures for assessing initiatives and identifying families for early intervention
• Offers guidance on data privacy legislation and facilitates access to necessary infrastructure
• Reviews data collected during mandated health visits
• Sets targets for improvement

Workforce Development

• Recognizes the importance of understanding adverse early years experiences
• Ensures accreditation criteria for social workers include knowledge of child development science
• Provides training for social workers and reviews curricula for other professions
• Requires sufficient, accredited supervision in commissioned programs

Government Strategy for Early Intervention

• Incorporates the latest scientific evidence and lessons from successful programs
• Sees early intervention as an opportunity to save costs and improve lives
• Shifts focus from late interventions to earlier interventions
• Provides funding for the Early Intervention Foundation

Local Authority Support

• Benefits from a central specialist team experienced in implementing evidence-based interventions
• Early Intervention Foundation identifies "Early Intervention Places"
• The central team and local authorities implement evidence-based programs and generate knowledge for wider implementation

Transition from Preschool to Elementary School

• Students with disabilities exited school systems without adequate plans for adulthood
• Transitions involve new responsibilities, uncertainties, and demands, which can be stressful

Legal Requirements for Early Intervention Transitions

• Transitional planning is best practice
• IDEA authorizes early intervention services for children with disabilities from birth to age 3
• Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) covers preschool programs for children ages 3 to 5 under IDEA Part B
• IDEA Part C requires transitional planning when a child moves from early intervention to ECSE
• Planning Process must start 6 months before the child's third birthday
• Transition plan must be created three months before the child's third birthday

Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP)

• Addresses transition procedures and family support
• IDEA ensures parental notification and consent

IFSP to IEP Transition

• Key issues to address when moving from IFSP to IEP
• IEPs are required for children ages 3 and over
• IDEA allows IFSP to continue beyond the third birthday if the planning team agrees
• Parents should know the differences between IFSP and IEP and must consent to continue IFSP

Focus Shift

• IFSP focuses on the family's needs, while IEP focuses on the child's needs
• Supports like respite care and home therapies may no longer be available
• Service locations and providers may change
• Parents should be informed of potential changes and assisted in finding alternatives

Service Providers

• School systems may not be the provider, so services are contracted privately
• Families must address changes in eligibility and types/locations of services
• Families may feel decreased attention or service quality

Transition to K-12

• No specific transition plans required for children moving from preschool to kindergarten
• Few school systems plan for students with disabilities entering kindergarten
• Transition activities decline sharply from kindergarten to first grade

Collaboration

• Transition to K-12 requires collaboration among services personnel and administrators
• Certain transition practices, like home visits, are infrequently used due to time constraints

Transition Plans

• Schools should use transition plans even if they are not required
• Systematically develop and follow transition plans
• Can address social/survival skills, the new classroom environment, new rules/routines, and academics

Transition Between Grades

• Areas addressed during transitions: social behaviors, communication, task-related behaviors, and self-help skills
• New classroom environment factors: teacher/aide ratios, attention levels, and physical arrangement
• New routines: requesting permission to speak, speaking to classmates, bathroom access, and managing materials
• Academics: minimum competency, subjects, instruction types, and response mechanisms
• Understanding the new school and necessary skills are crucial for planning transitions

Admission to Special Class

• Children must submit a current assessment report by qualified professionals for disability identification
• Psychoeducational assessments determine the type of disability, classification, placement, and educational needs
• Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) need to be developed
• Parents must provide informed consent before their child is evaluated
• The SPED teacher makes quarterly progress reports on the child's performance

Regular Class Concerns

• For children suspected of "differentness" or with educational performance problems
• Establish a parent–teacher conference to discuss concerns
• Implement an agreed-upon action plan
• If more intervention is needed, refer the learner to the consultation team/learner intervention team
• The team includes; regular class teacher, school counsellor, SPED Resource teacher, school nurse, principal, school psychologist/psychometrician, Guidance Counselor, Speech/Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapist, Adaptive P.E. Teacher and any appropriate person
• The regular class teacher signs up on the calendar and schedules time for a meeting as well as brings work samples
• The class teacher also fills out the referral form
• Parents must be contacted to discuss the observations made

The Members of the Intervention Team

• Special Education Teacher: Educational evaluations of learners with suspected disabilities
• A teacher of the visually impaired will assess academic, mobility, and orientation skills
• Physical Therapist: Evaluates gross motor functioning, living skills, self-help skills, and vocational skills
• Occupational Therapist: Evaluates fine motor skills
• Screens, evaluates, provides direct services, consults, and assists in obtaining assistive technology
• Speech Language Pathologist: Screens for speech and language development, provides evaluations, and consults with staff and parents
• Audiologist: Evaluates hearing for possible impairment and may refer for treatment Helps learners and parents obtain hearing aids
• SPED Diagnostician: Trained specialist who conducts psychoeducational assessments using standardized tests, checklists, interviews, and portfolio assessments
• Prepares intervention plans and priorities
• Developmental Pediatrician: Medical doctor specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of behavioral, communication, or mental problems
• Neurologist: Medical doctor trained in diagnosing and treating nervous system disorders
• Psychologist: Evaluates and diagnoses learning, social, emotional, and developmental problems
• Consults with parents and teachers to develop educational programs
• Psychiatrist: Physician who diagnoses and treats psychological, emotional, behavioral, and developmental problems
• Can prescribe medication
• Ophthalmologist: Medical doctor who evaluates and treats vision problems
• Performs eye surgery, prescribes glasses/medication, and suggests classroom modifications