What is Early Intervention and why is it important?

So... what is early intervention? Why is early intervention beneficial and important? What does an early interventionist and service coordinator do? These are questions that we as early interventionists and service coordinators are asked frequently. 

First let’s take a look at the question – What is early intervention?

• Early intervention is a statewide system that provides services to infants and toddlers with developmental delays or disabilities and their families whom are found eligible through BabyNet.

• Early intervention is free of cost regardless of the family’s income.

• Early intervention consists of special instruction in which an early interventionist will come into the home and provide strategies to you and your child to assist them in reaching their developmental milestones based on the strengths of the child and family.

• Early intervention also consists of service coordination in which your early interventionist will help you learn about the different services and programs within the community that can provide additional services to help meet the developmental milestones and address family concerns and needs.

  • Some of these services include: speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, genetics testing, autism screenings, and many more.

Next we will discuss why early intervention is important and beneficial for infants and toddlers? 

The first few years are very important for every infant and toddler as they are learning new things every day, hour, minute, and even down to every second.  They are becoming aware of the world they live in which in turn leads to them exploring, reaching out to others, and then communicating.  However, not every child meets developmental milestones at the same time as other infants and toddlers their age. Some develop their skills early and others develop them later.  The earlier an infant or toddler is diagnosed with a disability or developmental delay the sooner early intervention services will begin.  Early intervention will help infants and toddlers with disabilities and developmental delays overcome those developmental, behavioral, and learning problems. Infants and toddlers will be more likely to meet developmental milestones sooner and less likely to develop other disabilities in the future with early intervention. Early intervention consists of special instruction in which an early interventionist will come into the home and provide strategies to you and your child to assist them in reaching their developmental milestones based on the strengths of the child and family.