The Early Intervention Process

Now that you made the phone call into the Early Intervention program near you, you might wonder what happens next. This process seems a bit overwhelming, well honestly, a lot overwhelming. You just want help for your little one now! Trust me, we’ve been there. It’s a lot to take in and a lot to navigate to get to the part where your child and family receive support. But we will guide you through navigating these initial steps in the Early Intervention process.

Initial Phone Call

First, expect a phone call back from an Early Intervention coordinator. Sometimes this call comes within a few days, other times it might take much longer. I heard that it took just under a month for one family. So definitely keep a log of when you call. Then, if you don’t hear anything in the first week, do call back and leave another message. Sometimes phone calls get missed or people think someone else is handling your case.

The initial phone call is pretty simple. They usually want to gather your family information, basic information about your child, and some information about your concerns. Then they pair you with a coordinator or if your coordinator did the initial interview, they schedule you for the longer interview. Sometimes these interviews take place in the Early Intervention office near you. Other times the coordinator comes to your home, and sometimes these are done via the phone or video calls. Be sure to ask how your coordinator will host this first interview with your family.

The Early Intervention Interview

Usually this first interview doesn’t involve your child instead they simply gather information. Honestly share your concerns, and if they ask you something you don’t know, tell them. You probably don’t know because your child isn’t doing the skill or behavior yet. And definitely don’t be afraid to let them know that your child isn’t doing something just yet. That’s where they are there to help!

To prepare to discuss your child’s milestones, the CDC made wonderful developmental milestone checklists by age for children under 5. This breaks down the developmental milestones for children by age. This app will also alert you to any areas to share with your child’s pediatrician and remind you to make well visit check up appointments. It is an amazing tool for families, whether this is your first child or fifth child.

The Basics

This first interview asks a lot of questions so I’ll cover many of those that I remember from our two different coordinators. First, they ask about family structure: people living in the house, siblings, ages, parent jobs, type of home, etc. Next, they moved on to discussing the pregnancy and birth of our little ones. Do we remember any complications, issues, or concerns during that time? It’s perfectly fine to say that everything went normally or share about your extra long morning sickness or complications discovered during ultrasounds. As this is your experience, there really isn’t a right or wrong answer.

Development

Then they ask about your little ones development from birth to now. They ask about babbling, cooing, rolling over, sitting, crawling, walking, first words, etc. If you know the age when your little one first started these skills great, if not, try to give an approximate time (around Thanksgiving, in the summer) or even how long ago it was (last week). Many of these questions are very similar to the CDC developmental milestone checklists for your child’s age.

Parenting

This interview also focuses on some aspects of your parenting. The coordinator isn’t here to judge, just learn more about your family. They asked us about sleeping: where, when, how long; discipline: what strategies we used; eating: when, what, and how much; play time: toys, tummy time; and of course our concerns for our child.

The coordinator gathers data in order to best help you and make sure your child receives the right services. She is not there to judge you and tell you what to change. Instead, she wants to help you to find therapists and support that will best meet your family’s need. The only way that your Early Intervention coordinator can do that is to get to know your family and parenting style.

The Play Based Evaluation

After the interview, our coordinators scheduled a play based evaluation. This took some time to schedule because she needed to find all the right people to attend. They want a speech and language pathologist If you showed concern about your child’s speech. For movement concerns, they look for a physical therapist and/or occupational therapist. For behavior concerns, they want to invite a behavior interventionist. And of course, they always want to invite a developmental psychologist or other expert in child development.

Moreover, your Early Intervention coordinator wants to bring in specialists that will support your family. There are so many different specialists out there, but they need to find someone who is available for an evaluation soon. Plus, they want to match families with specialists who share their core parenting values too.

Scheduling the Early Intervention Evaluation

It takes some time to first find the right specialists near you, or willing to travel to your home. Second to get people all on the same date is a task in it’s own. And of course, let your coordinator know which dates and times work best for you. This is especially important if your little one naps. It is perfectly acceptable to pick a time around your child’s nap time. It is also okay to pick a time that works for both parents.

Each of our evaluations took about a week to schedule. This usually involved our coordinator having us block out a calendar with possible days for an evaluation within the next month. Then they would spend the next few days contacting therapists to find a team to conduct our child’s evaluation. Once they narrowed down a time, they gave us a quick call to verify the time would work for us. Both times it did because they stayed closely to the calendar of dates and times we spoke about initially. However, do give your Early Intervention coordinator a little grace if they really cannot make your days and times work. They really are trying.

Scheduling Tips

Our Early Intervention evaluations were usually held about 3 weeks after our interview. All the therapists and specialists came to our home. Prepare for about 4 – 7 people to come over to play with your little one. The therapists were always super respectful. They took off their shoes when entering, brought their toys to any room we indicated, and of course gave our little one time to get more comfortable.

On a quick note, do prepare for all the extra cars coming to your neighborhood. If there are any parking regulations, it is nice to inform your Early Intervention coordinator. This is just one way you can help make sure the evaluation goes smoothly.

Parent Questions

The therapists ask lots of questions. During the evaluation, one or two therapists played with our child while another therapist asked us questions. They switched off who plays and who asked questions so that each therapist completes their checklist. Many of the questions asked about if our child could do a specific skill always, sometimes or not yet. Don’t feel bad saying not yet. These are the areas that the therapists will focus on with your child.

Sometimes they ask similar questions looking for a different answer. For example, how many words can your child say, after asking your if your child uses at least 20 words? Another example, how far can your child crawl after asking if your child can crawl the length of the room. It’s not that they are trying to trick you. Instead they are usually following a scripted screener. These screeners have different sections that look at different skills. Some sets of questions ask you to answer with always, sometimes, or not yet. Others want a specific number answer.

Again, it is perfectly okay to let them know you aren’t sure, or give an estimation (but never overestimate what your child can do, it’s better to give a smaller number that you can count and miss something than to give too high a number).

The Evaluation

Our children loved playing with the therapists. They were always super engaged and seemed to enjoy the process. We did lots of block building, trying to draw with crayons, looking at books, copying movements, kicking a ball, walking from one therapist to another, sorting shapes, puzzles and stacking toys. Of course, for younger or older children, the toys and experiences might differ.

Throughout the whole experience, our child led. When he didn’t want to look at a book, no worries. They just asked us more questions. If she wanted to build something different with the blocks, they encouraged it. They would try a few different times to get her to stack them or make what the therapist made, but if she didn’t, they just moved on. The vast amount of toys and people held her attention and she loved her big play date with new toys.

The super positive environment with our children and wonderful comments made the process more enjoyable for us too. All throughout the evaluation, the therapists would share strategies, tips and tricks for supporting our little one. These were so valuable! The actual evaluation probably took about 20 – 40 minutes to complete.

After the evaluation, the therapists needed a few minutes to enter final adjustments into their computers to calculate current developmental ages. This determines if your child qualifies for services.

Prepare for Your Child to have a Delay

In order to qualify for Early Intervention services, your child needs to be functioning behind their same age peers. So expect a delay. The level of delay and areas needed to qualify vary from state to state. This delay doesn’t mean your child is dumb or way behind or going to struggle, it merely means that your child isn’t doing something that other children his/her age are doing. Early Intervention is there to help your child to develop these skills and many more! This is just the first step!

After the Early Intervention Evaluation

Now that all the numbers are in and the reports are mostly typed, the therapists will share their findings with you. This usually happens about 10 minutes after finishing the play based evaluation. Each therapist shares their results, which your coordinator will type into a report. They usually ask the therapists who address your concerns to go last. At any time you can pause the therapists, ask questions, and even correct or clarify anything.

Based on the reports shared, if a delay is noted that qualifies for Early Intervention, the therapists will write an IFSP, Individual Family Service Plan, immediately following. This is the plan that determines the goals for your child and family, the services your child receives and any extra information needed to help your child. Check out our post of Writing the IFSP!

If the reports shared shows no delay or only a mild delay, your child may not qualify for Early Intervention services. However, many times the therapists will share some strategies and tips to help you support your child. The Early Intervention coordinator may even follow up with your family a few months later to see how things are going and if anything has changed.

Services Needed

If an IFSP is written and your child does qualify for Early Intervention services, the coordinator then works with you to start scheduling the therapies that your child receives and getting those services started. These services may start within the next week, but could take a few months to get started as well. It all depends on your availability and the availability of therapists willing to travel to your area.

Depending on your area, these services can be offered in person, via a video conference or even over the phone. But with each step taking a few days to weeks, it is important that you start the process as soon as you note any concerns about your child. The sooner you start, the quicker you can get services started if your child should qualify.

We’d love to hear from you. If you’ve worked with Early Intervention in the past, drop us a comment and let us know about your experience. If you are debating starting your Early Intervention journey, reach out. We are here to support you.