How to Begin the Early Intervention Process

You have been blessed with a new baby who is growing wonderfully into a toddler. What a wonderful time to explore life and rediscover your world! But you have some concerns, whether as a first time parent or a second or more time parent. Even when your child seems to be meeting all the milestones and developing just as everyone tells you they should be, something keeps worrying you. Don’t fret! I think this is so normal and many parents feel this way. We are going to guide you through the first steps to beginning the early intervention process.

Where to Begin the Early Intervention Process

The early intervention process begins long before you ever make a phone call. This all begins with a child and your own parent intuition. Hopefully, you have been involved in your child’s well being visits and have built a good rapport with your child’s pediatrician. You have learned so much about child development and the skills your child should do at each age.

Even with all this knowledge and support, something is still bothering you. Something feels off or just not quite right. If that’s how you feel, you are in the right place. Let’s dive in to the early intervention process.

Pediatrician is the First Step

Always start by talking with your child’s pediatrician. Ours has been our life saver through so much of the infant and toddler stages of childhood. What a wealth of knowledge and experience they bring. Attend the regular child visits and openly share your concerns or thoughts.

Your child’s well visits as so important. These are scheduled times to check your child’s well being. Your doctor will physically check your child, but they will also ask you questions. These questions help to determine how your child is growing cognitively, socially, and emotionally too.

Your child’s doctor should be able to share with you the expected ranges for specific skills. In addition, they share typically developing behaviors at each stage. Keep in mind that these stages tend to have very broad ranges and being on the end of the range doesn’t mean your child is struggling. In fact, anywhere in the range is considered normal. However, if your child is consistently taking longer to meet milestones, this might be a reason to refer you to early intervention. Your pediatrician can refer you to Early Intervention if another perspective would be helpful!

What if I Still have Concerns?

If your pediatrician has alleviated your worries or even referred you to Early Intervention, your process is pretty easy. They probably made a call to Early Intervention and hopefully gave you a number to contact as well. Both calls help to go a long way to getting services started as soon as possible.

However, if your pediatrician isn’t ready to refer you to Early Intervention, that is not an end to the process. If you still have some worries, or just want another opinion, you have options as well. You are able to call early intervention yourself to begin the process. This call does not have to come from a pediatrician, it just helps when it does. Any person with a relationship with a child can make a call to early intervention. However, they will want your permission to call. The good new is, you have a relationship with your child, so any parent can make the call as well.

Parents can also seek out a developmental screening on their own. Many local places offer free developmental screenings for young children. This service supports families and helps to ensure that any child who needs is able to receive early intervention.

Developmental Screening

Many Early Intervention providers in the area offer free developmental screenings. If the screenings aren’t free, insurance usually covers them. Do a quick internet search of speech services near me. You can also search for OT (occupational therapy) near me. Hopefully you will find a business or two.

Browse their websites. Find a service provider or two that you would feel comfortable contacting. Then send them an email or make a phone call. Ask if they do developmental screenings in your area. You’ll be surprised how many do free screenings. If possible, schedule the screening for as soon as you are able.

If the first place you call doesn’t offer screenings or they are not free, don’t give up. Most areas have multiple service providers to choose from. Go back to your research and make another call. Chances are you will find one who offers just what you are looking for and can provide the help you need.

What is the Screening?

These screenings are usually play based and quick. You and your child will be invited into the office. Most screenings take place in a child comfortable area with toys with one child at a time. However, occasionally screenings will be conducted in a group setting.

The service provider in charge of the screening will engage your child through play. While your child interacts in the environment with all the toys and objects around, the screener will be closely watching your child. This is a great way to take a look at your child’s physical skills. She may ask your child to try something, or being playing with specific toys to see what your child will do. But there is no pressure and definitely no forcing of behaviors.

Throughout the screening, the service provider will most likely ask you questions about your child’s development and your concerns. Answer these questions as honestly as you are able. If you aren’t sure about something, it’s okay to say that too. Just know that most of the times when you aren’t sure, it means your child probably hasn’t started doing that skill. So it’s okay to say that too.

Who are the Screeners?

Additionally, the screener usually has a master’s degree in working with younger children. What a great person to discuss your concerns and hear some wonderful things about your child. Generally this person will have knowledge of the development of young child. You tend to see many developmental therapists conducting these screeners. However, they could also be conducted by a speech and language pathologist or occupational therapist.

After the screening, don’t just rush out. Take a moment to talk with the screener to ask questions about what they observed and their professional opinion. The service provider can provide you with information on contacting Early Intervention. Moreover, they can help you through the process if your child would benefit from some therapy. They are motivated to help your family receive services because they want your business. But they also generally want to help children too.

Call Early Intervention

As another route, a parent can also call Early Intervention and request an evaluation as well. So if you’d like to skip the pediatrician and the developmental screening, you can search for your Early Intervention number specific for your state or country. Then, make that call yourself. This may take a little longer to get through the process. But it will get you started on your Early Intervention journey.

Family Interview

The Early Intervention coordinators will mostly take your information. They may wish to set up an more in depth interview at your home or their office. However, sometimes they will take the information they need right on the initial phone call.

During this interview, the early intervention coordinator will ask some questions about your child’s development, your pregnancy and your little one’s early life. In addition, they discuss your concerns. Then they will move into setting up the informal play based assessment. Sometimes they will recommend a developmental screening before the play based assessment, other times they jump to scheduling. This can vary by your state and even change from one year to the next.

Play-based Evaluation

Here the necessary therapists take an in-depth look into any areas of concern for your child. It seems much scarier than it is. Often the coordinators will share some helpful tips and tricks for your family during the evaluation.

This is really an informal play-based evaluation. Depending on your state, you will have a variety of people come to your house. Some states have one person who conducts the evaluations, other states send a team for each area of development that families have concerns. Your Early Intervention coordinator will know the right people to send based on your state’s guidelines.

The therapists will set up in a room that you pick. They will usually take out their toys and just talk with you while your little one gets comfortable with all the new people. Then they will begin to guide your little one through playing with the various items they bought. During this time, they are looking to see how your child moves, interacts, and uses a variety of different items. This is all done by following your child’s lead and enticing your child to try something different. There is no pressure. For more specifics, read our post on Navigating Early Intervention.

Tips for Families on the Early Intervention Process

You Are Doing the Right Thing!

Never hold your concerns at bay. If you are worried, seek out the support of others and ask for help. The sooner you can feel confident in your child’s development or receive services, the better for your little one to grow and spread their wings. Early Intervention is truly a life saver for so many families and their children.

Uses the services provided by Early Intervention does not make you a bad parent. Set your fears and worry aside. You are doing the right thing for your child and you will be their superhero! Seeking out help takes a lot of courage and strength. Being willing to learn and support your child in a new way takes even more. You are amazing!

When it comes to your child, always trust your gut. If something doesn’t seem or feel right to you, follow up. We love all the people in our children’s life, but you are their constant and their advocate. Only you can ensure your child gets what they need.

Follow Up

If you don’t hear back from Early Intervention within a week, follow up! Government programs are often underfunded and government employees can be overworked. Sometimes things fall through the cracks. Not because any specific person wants them to, but things get overlooked, forgotten, and misfiled. Don’t let that happen to you. Make a second phone call and ask if they have any more information to share. It never hurts to follow up just so your child doesn’t get lost in the background.

Have Patience

We all know that feeling of wanting information now. And nothing brings it out of parents more than worry about their child. While it is true that the sooner your child receives services, the more growth they can make now, these things take time. Nothing in Early Intervention happens right away.

Your coordinator will need to reach out to evaluators to try to find the right people. They will need to coordinate multiple different schedules, including your own. This all takes time. If your child qualifies, your coordinator will need to reach out to service providers. This again will take time. Once early intervention gets started, things run so smoothly, but the initial process may take a few months.

If you are looking for more immediate services, that’s okay too. Contact your insurance and see what your child qualifies to receive. You may find that your insurance will cover all or most of the cost of therapies in the time it takes Early Intervention to begin. Plus, you can work with your Early Intervention Coordinator to try to utilize the therapists you schedule on your own, so long as they are Early Intervention qualified therapists.

We would love to hear from you below. Have an Early Intervention story to share, waiting to hear if your child qualifies, or debating beginning, let us know in the comments. We would love to support you. Read our journey with Early Intervention. Learn more about the Early Intervention – 6 Month Review.

Hi, I’m Nicole.

Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.