Why You Should Consider Early Intervention

If you are here today, you most likely have concerns about your little ones development. First, let me tell you, you are doing the right thing! You are an incredible parent for taking the time to learn how to best support your toddler or infant. I’m proud of you for taking this difficult step and I hope you are proud of yourself too! Now, let’s dive into early intervention and why it is so important when you are concerned about your toddler’s development.

We are big supporters of Early Intervention in our household. Our two youngest have been so fortunate to embark on an early intervention journey and have had such wonderful experiences. We really wish we had started the process with our older son. But we just didn’t really know, and that’s saying a lot as a mom with a background in both early childhood education and special education.

Our Journey

When our older son qualified for speech services through the school district at 3 years old, we were so grateful to get the help. He was struggling to communicate and this was leading to some epic meltdowns that left us all crying. He knew what he wanted and was trying to communicate but we just couldn’t figure it out. This left us scrambling to meet his needs and wishing there was more we could do. The school speech program was great at communicating what he was working on and working with him on improving his speech.

When our younger son presented similar speech delays at his 2 year appointment, our pediatrician recommended starting the Early Intervention process. Being new to the process, we had no idea what to except. We started with the developmental screening, which he struggled through. Then we were referred to the Early Intervention Coordinator who was a life saver throughout the process. For example, she walked us through what to expect, coordinated everyone’s schedules and kept us informed of what was to come.

When we had speech concerns with our youngest daughter, our pediatrician suggested Early Intervention at just 18 months. Knowing what to expect, we jumped right in. This time we didn’t even need to complete the developmental screening. Instead, we started right away with the Early Intervention Coordinator interview and she led us through the process. This included: a play based evaluation, writing of the IFSP, scheduling service coordinators, marking progress and updating plans, and even transitioning to the school district.

The Benefits of Early Intervention

The best part of Early Intervention are the awesome specialists that work with your child. They are here not just to support your child, but also to support the family. When you have a child, no one gives you a parent guidebook or suggested activity plan. However, the therapists can guide you! And they recommend activities, suggestions, and guidance that is specific to your family and your child. Every time our children had a therapy session, we walked away with new strategies and ideas for our child. It was amazing! In addition, if we had questions about other areas, the therapists were always happy to find answers for us.

If you have any concerns about your child’s development, please reach out to your local early intervention team. Having concerns does not make you a bad parent, in fact, it shows just how much you care and what to support your child.

Early Intervention Specialists

The early intervention specialists are just amazing. There are many different options too! Your child might need a speech and language pathologist (SLP), occupational therapist (OT), physical therapist (PT), nutrition specialist, developmental therapist (DT), adaptive behavior therapist (ABE), and so much more. Each family is unique and the services your child receives are based on family concerns, evaluation, and availability in your area. We have heard of families work with eating specialists, sleep experts, vision itinerants, audiologists, and even medical support.

All of our therapists had a master’s degree in their field. You can’t ask for a more well educated specialist to help with your child’s delays. We were lucky to have children with speech and core motor delays but many families have children with much more profound delays. Depending on your child’s delays, the therapies and therapists will vary.

No matter your concerns, these therapists work to help you to best support your child and learn new strategies and tips to add to your tool belt. And boy do they have lots of knowledge! And usually, if they don’t know something, they have a team of experts that they can reach out to. I know every therapist we worked with was part of a group of therapists where they meet monthly to learn and discuss ways to improve. On the occasion that the therapists recommended something that didn’t work with our family dynamic, we let them know and they found new strategies.

Closing the Gap

The early support that our children received was awesome for them too! Not only did this help to close the gap but it allowed our children the opportunity to start school farther along in their speech development and core motor development. While I’m sure they would have grown some naturally during the years from the recognition of the delay to the start of kindergarten, it definitely wouldn’t have been as much growth. The therapists came with so many strategies and tricks that they not only utilized with our children, but shared with us. And these sessions were all play based! We learned some many new ways to play with and interact with our children through this experience.

During the early years, your child will get special attention just for them. Your child’s therapist will target their sessions to directly work with your child to improve their skills. Since your therapist works directly with your child, they can adjust as your child grows. With each skill or change in your child’s development, your child’s therapist can adjust the program and therapy sessions. This allows your child’s therapist to meet your child’s every changing needs. By easily and frequently adjusting the program, your child will more quickly close the gap between their peers.

Early Intervention is Help for the Whole Family

School district therapies are amazing too, but nothing quite compares to early intervention. Therapists who come to your house, join your family each week (or month), and work one on one with your child bring a much different experience than therapists who work with your child solely at school. An early intervention therapist spends their entire time (well, minus a little paper work), working with your child and family. You can be present for every therapy and have time to ask questions, observe, and learn. You won’t get this in most school districts.

When you invite an early intervention therapist into your home, you receive so many benefits. This therapist will work one on one with your child, providing direct therapy. But early intervention goes so much further than that. As a parent, or caregiver, you are able to participate in your child’s therapy. This allows you to extend the learning throughout the week or time between sessions. You can practice your child’s new skills with them and will walk away with so many great ideas.

Further, during the therapy session, most therapists are open to having conversations with parents. You have time to ask questions on parenting. Really, on anything you need a little advice. Confused on potty training? Wondering about foods to introduce to your child? Struggling with sleep schedules? Take a few moments to ask your therapist. While they may have some great ideas, sometimes they aren’t quite sure. But more often than not, they will find you resources to help you support your child. And these resources will more closely fit your parenting style and methods more closely than internet searches or parenting books since the therapists know your family.

Don’t Let Perception and Fear Hold You Back

So many families tend to shy away from early intervention. Fear gets in their way. As parents, we don’t want to be seen as a bad parent or failure for our children. This is a fear that all parents experience and it pushes us to be better. But sometimes we let this fear hold us back from asking for help or admitting our child has a problem.

A Change in Mindset

This is when it is so important to take a deep breath. A shift in mindset is so important! If your child needs help or isn’t meeting their developmental milestones, this does NOT make you a bad parent. This is even true if you believe that something you have done caused these delays. We all make mistakes, we are all learning, and just because it seems like everyone else knows, they don’t! In addition, even our past mistakes do not define us, instead how we grow from those mistakes do.

A good parent, recognizes when their child needs helps. This is also true if someone else shows you that your child needs help. Listening to your child’s pediatrician, teacher, or therapist when they show us that our child isn’t meeting developmental milestones, actually makes you a great parent. You have taken the time to recognize that your child needs more support.

And sometimes we need to listen to our gut. Your child’s pediatrician and teacher may not have any concerns. However, if you still have concerns, explore them. Ask to speak to a specialists or for an evaluation. Sometimes children can look like they are meeting all their milestones and doing well on the surface, but families see more in depth. The more your share with the specialists in your child’s life, the more likely you are to help your child.

Perception of Early Intervention

Many parents feel like if their child needs early intervention, others will think they are bad parents. However, we have never once had that feeling justified by any therapist in early intervention. Instead, they celebrated us for recognizing that our child needed more help. Help that we couldn’t provide because we just didn’t know. And as an educator mom, this is a hard pill to swallow, let me tell you. But we really all cannot be a specialist in everything. It’s precisiely why these therapies exist!

Instead, we were welcomed into the world of early intervention. We connected with therapists, other families, and our coordinator. Each therapy session focused on helping our child, but also showed us just how we were supporting our child. In fact, our therapists often commented on the wonderful strategies and ways we were helping our child. Just by getting your child help, you are a great parent!

Early Intervention Can Help you Become a Great Parent

Recognizing that your child isn’t meeting their developmental milestones is the first step to helping your child. And early intervention is one way that you can do this! Great parents want to help their child to learn, grow, and become better people. They want to offer their child all the knowledge that they have and so much more. But not every parent can know everything. Even medical professionals disagree on many parenting topics and raise their children drastically differently.

Parents who seek help for their child despite their fears, are in fact, great parents. Looking past perception and your own worries to help your child makes you incredible! One of the first steps in helping your infant or toddler is reaching out to early intervention. They will not only determine if your child is actually behind in meeting their milestones, but also just how far behind, and provide your strategies to help your child.

The strategies and support that early intervention provide will help you to grow as a parent and better meet your child’s needs. And all great parents want to grow as a parent and meet their child’s needs to the best of their ability. This is what makes you great!

Final Thoughts

If you have any concerns about your child’s development, share these with your pediatrician. If he/she shares the concerns, definitely seek out Early Intervention services for your family. Even if your pediatrician doesn’t share your concerns, if you truly feel that something isn’t right, don’t ignore it. You can refer your own child to Early Intervention or can even seek out a developmental screening. Many times, developmental screenings are free! If nothing else, it can give you the piece of mind that your child is progressing just as they should be and often the screener will provide some great tips and strategies.

No family should ever feel embarrassed or ashamed if their child isn’t meeting their developmental milestones. If you are doing the best you can for your child, you should be proud of yourself. Early Intervention doesn’t mean you failed, and it definitely doesn’t mean you are a bad parent. If anything, it shows your willingness to do what it takes to support your child. If your child does qualify for Early Intervention, what a great resource you will have in your pocket to support your child. The sooner you can start Early Intervention, the better for your child and you!

Have you had the joy of having a child in early intervention? We would love if you would let us know about your experience in the comments. We would love to celebrate your child’s successes with you. And if you need any help in starting the early intervention journey, please reach out. Continue our journey with Starting the Early Intervention Process and 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.