Team Based Early Intervention

I've been invited to share my perspectives on Team Based Early Intervention Services. This is an opportunity for me to share my passion for Early Intervention and my excitement about this momentous change in the way these services are provided in my state. I have already shared some of this information via YouTube with our state's Parent Training and Information Center.

Supporting families is important work. It is important that professionals who support families meet families where they are at and assume confidence and competence. It is also essential that families have the opportunity to participate in a voluntary family-directed assessment which allows them to identify their concerns, priorities and resources and enables them to develop functional, family-centered and meaningful outcomes for their child and family.

It is critical that professionals who support families are aware of current evidence-based research which demonstrates that there are ways to assist families.  That if we are to incorporate new skills into our repertoire we must have an introduction or illustration, practice and then have an opportunity to evaluate and reflect on our efforts. Carl Dunst, and his team at the Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute, has done considerable research on how to empower parents and support their confidence and capacity, as they care for their child with an infant and toddler with a disability.  

Using Team Based Services that encourage providers to work as a team, rather than a series of individuals, is the first step. The next step is to provide professional development that help professionals to strengthen parent capacity as part of early intervention.

Want to Learn More?

Carl Dunst Research Scientist, Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute, NC. http://www.puckett.org/  The Institute Centers include, Center for Evidence-Based Practices www.evidencebasedpractices.org, 

Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Education www.ceecenc.org, 

Center for Innovative and Promising Practices www.innovativepractices.org, 

Center for Improving Community Linkages www.communitylinkages.org, 

Center for Practical Evaluation www.practicalevaluation.org, 

Center for Dissemination and Utilization www.utlization.info. http://leadership-2012.events.tadnet.org/uploads/879/download

Dunst, C.J., Trivette, C.M., & Hamby, D.W. (2010). Meta-analysis of the effectiveness of four adult learning methods and strategies. International Journal of Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning, 3(1), 91-112.

Dunst, C. J., and; Trivette, C. M. (2009). Capacity-building family systems intervention practices. Journal of Family Social Work, 12(2), 119-143.

Swanson, J., Raab, M., & Dunst, C.J. (2011). Strengthening family capacity to provide young children everyday natural learning opportunities. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 9(1), 66-80.

Dunst, C.J., and; Trivette, C.M. (2009). Meta-analytic structural equation modeling of the influences of family-centered care on parent and child psychological health. International Journal of Pediatrics, 2009, 1-9.

Sharing Information

We've asserted that Web 2.0 can be used to share information with families in previous posts here, here and here. And as we stated in the Web 2.0  post, one thing to think about is how information that is already out there can be re-purposed.

Repurposed?
Yes, reused, rewritten, reshared. Think of it as upcycling for information. There are great websites out there with tons of well-written information. Here's a sampling of my favorite early intervention websites: NECTAC, NICHCY, and the IDEA Partnership.This is a great website that is geared towards typical child development: Baby Center. And then there are those websites geared towards specific disabilities: NDSS, Autism Speaks, and dozens of others. There's also Pinterest, and Facebook Fanpages, and tons of wonderful blogs, that focus on a specific diagnosis or therapeutic approach.

One thing that can be helpful is to write a webpage or blog posting that deals with a specific issue and link to these other websites to assist families to learn how to research where they can find information when they are advocating on behalf of their child.

An Example, Please?
My son has an orthopedic impairment called Arthrogryposis.  Our community has a website, online forum, and a Facebook group. Recently we've been talking about a new report that links multiple exposures to anesthesia before age 3 to ADHD and learning disabilities. We've had discussions in the past regarding concerns about learning disabilities and inattentaton. Families shared that despite concerns raised by the child's general education teacher about how this was negatively impacting on the child's education, the IEPs for these students contained no goals or supports to address the concern. Families said that the schools informed them that since the students IEP was addressing an orthopedic impairment the focus was on their child's physical impairments and was not intended to address academic issues.  I did some quick research, got a hand finding the correct citations from a friend, and wrote a blog post that showed families where they could find letters from OSEP like this one explaining that IEP Teams should use the child's unique needs to decide what services to provide, not the disability label.  I also found citations that families could use to ask for additional evaluations.

But isn't this stuff already out there?
Yes, but that doesn't mean that people know where to find it or how to put the information to use.  Repurposing, reusing, rewriting and resharing can help families to find information and see how it might be put to use in the real world. 

We're in love...

On Saturday, I posted about Pinterest. Today I am going to show you how I've been using Pinterest for my early intervention work. I began by just looking at all of the different boards out there, and as I mentioned, like Alice you can find yourself in a any number of crazy places!  So let's backtrack and talk about how I found some of my pins.  

Once I realized that I wanted to collect pins that reflected images around early intervention and assistive technology I first searched the kids section. There I found many other images from OTs, PTs, and SLPs and teachers. Then I went back to some of my tried and true websites and started pinning those images as well.  And then I thought, wait a second, I am repinning from others, why not invite those folks to pin to my board?  And you should see how it has exploded, I've added a dozen followers, too!   

Here's another shot of my EI Board, which you can follow here: http://pinterest.com/caseywaid/ei-ideas/

Are you using Pinterest?  If so, I'd like to follow you and read about what you are doing with your boards.

Part C Regulations

In my last post, I discussed how one might use social media to inform families and the field about potential policy changes.  Today, I'll talk about real policy changes that will have impacts on early intervention.  The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, was reauthorized in 2004, and the final regulations were just released in September of 2011.


Reviewing the Regulations
Many groups reviewed the proposed regulations.  In 2009, the IDEA Infant and Toddler Coordinator's Association (ITCA), Part C Coordinators for many states, worked with the Division of Early Childhood of the Council of Exceptional Children (DEC) to produce joint comments.    The Early Intervention Family Alliance,  (EIFA), a group of family leaders (disclaimer--I am a Founding Board Member and Past President), submitted comments on the proposed regulations.  More information can also be found at the OSEP-funded National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center website.