What Is Early Intervention?

In this episode we will talk about early intervention in Nebraska, the Early Development Network program and  why early intervention is important for infants and toddlers with disabilities and health care needs.  

Transcript

Connie Shockley:  

Welcome to Talking Special Needs a PTI, Nebraska podcast. Helping families of children with disabilities and healthcare needs to develop advocacy skills while learning about special education, healthcare systems, and other topics that affect family lives.

 Hello, everyone, this is Connie Shockley at PTI Nebraska.  On today is the first in a series of early childhood topics on early intervention. Today we will cover what is early intervention, what is the Early Development Network program and why early intervention is important.  In the next podcast, I will discuss in more detail about referrals in evaluations. 

 So, let's talk about what is early intervention?  Early intervention is a system of services that helps babies and toddlers with developmental delays or disabilities. Early Intervention focuses on helping eligible babies and toddlers learn the basic and brand-new skills that typically developed during the first three years of life. 

 There are five areas that are looked at for this age group.   I will go over those and some examples of skills in each area. 

 First are physical skills.  So, things like reaching, rolling, crawling, and walking.  Cognitive skills are looked at, and this will be thinking, learning solving problems.  Communication skills. This would include talking, listening, and understanding.  Social emotional skills; things like playing, feeling secure and happy.  And then self-help skills, things like eating and dressing.  

 There are overarching outcomes for early intervention, and these can give you more of an idea of the aim of the program but know the families decide the individual goals for their child and their family. 

 Program Outcomes for infants and toddlers include one, for your child to develop positive social emotional skills, two, for your child to acquire and use knowledge and skills, and three, for your child to use appropriate behaviors to meet his or her needs. 

 There are also three program outcomes for families and those include: help you as a parent to one, understand your rights and early intervention, help you as a parent to two, effectively communicate your child's needs. And three, help you as a parent to help your child develop and learn. And again, while these are the program outcomes, families decide their individual child and individual family goals.

 So, let's talk a bit about the Early Development Network program.  In Nebraska, the early intervention program is called the Early Development Network program, or EDN.  Now, each state has an early intervention program, but they have different names and can look very different from one another.  In some states, parents may pay a fee for early intervention services. But Nebraska is considered one of a handful of birth mandate states and that means the children who qualify receive free early intervention services.

 The Early Development Network program is a collaborative effort shared by Co-Lead agencies and that would be the Department of Health and Human Services, DHHS, and the Nebraska Department of Education, NDE.  Assistance and advice is provided by a statewide council called the Early Childhood Interagency Coordinating Council, or ECICC. Nebraska is the only state that has Co-Lead agencies running the early intervention program. The Department of Health and Human Services oversees the (EDN) Services Coordinators, and the Nebraska Department of Education oversees the school districts. The Early Childhood Interagency Coordinating Council is a governor appointed state council that among other duties, is responsible for advising and assisting the Co-Lead agencies in their duties. 

 So as a bit of a review, the Co-Lead agencies, Nebraska Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services are responsible for the Early Development Network programming Nebraska. The Early Development Network program is the state early intervention program that serves infants and toddlers with disabilities in Nebraska.  Now at the local levels, we have the Planning Region Teams.  They're also referred to as PRT's and these are the agencies that oversee the EDN program at the local or regional level. There are currently 27 Planning Region Teams across the state. 

 So next we're going to cover some important documents and websites that you might be interested in that cover the early intervention program. The first is Rule 52. Rule 52 Is the Regulations and Standards for the Provision of Early Intervention Services. It is the early intervention regulations for Nebraska and specifically the regulations for the Nebraska Department of Education. These regulations govern the school districts and their responsibilities in early intervention. The next is the Early Development Network Service Coordination regulations. And these are from the Department of Health and Human Services, laying out the regulations around the responsibilities for the (EDN) Service Coordinators. There are two regulations because Nebraska has the two agencies, the Nebraska Department of Education and Health and Human Services overseeing the Early Development Network program. 

 Some other documents that might be helpful is the Nebraska eligibility guidelines documents. These are housed on the Nebraska Department of Education Special Education website.  I will put a link in the transcript for the podcast where you can find these.  (https://www.education.ne.gov/sped/eligibility-guidelines/)

 There are 13 verification categories used in Nebraska. Developmental Delay tends to be the most common category for infants and toddlers. However, they can be placed under one of the other verification categories as well. 

 The last resource is the Early Development Network website for early intervention, and that is e d n dot ne dot gov (http://edn.ne.gov)

 I will also put that in the transcript for the podcast.  That (website) has all the information links on anything related to early intervention in Nebraska. Again, these links will be put in the transcript for this podcast. You can also email or call me, and I'll be happy to send those out to you. 

 It is important for families to know there are regulations around how the program works, so if there are any questions or concerns, we can refer parents to the specific sections in the regulations and help them understand their rights in the program. 

 So, a few more details around the Early Development Network program or EDN. EDN is the program that provides early intervention across the state for qualifying children under the ages of three.  EDN can help you address your concerns with an early intervention program designed to meet the unique needs of your child and family.  EDN can help you and your family support and promote your child's development within your family activities and community life.  EDN and connects families with early intervention services to help infants and toddlers grow and develop and help their families in the process. Early Intervention and EDN is a voluntary service that provides supports for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. 

Now, as I mentioned, Nebraska is a birth mandate state, which means that children who qualify for early intervention services receive those services for free. Now one of the things that the (EDN) Services Coordinators help families with is to find community resources as well. So community resources may have their own qualifications and costs associated with them. But the early intervention services themselves are free to families. 

 Another feature of the program is that any early intervention services that are provided are provided in the child's natural environment. So natural environment for early intervention is defined as settings where children of the same age without disabilities would be found. So consider where your child would be spending time if they did not have a disability.  So whenever possible, EDN services occurs in those environments and services also are provided year-round. 

 Now, early intervention services can help you and your family to identify your child and family strengths, interests in needs, support and promote your child's development and include your child in your family and community life.  As a parent, you help decide the outcomes of early intervention that are important for your child and family, the early intervention services that your child and family needs and when and where your child and family will get early intervention services. 

 Some other features for the Early Development Network program is services coordination, family centered services, the early intervention model, the coaching model, the primary service provider model, the Individualized Family Service Plan, and parental rights. I will go into more detail in a future podcast on each of these features. 

 Now let's talk about some of the services through the Early Development Network program.  The family centered services are based on special needs of each child and family. So, services may include but are not limited to services coordination, special instruction, speech language therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, psychological services, assistive technology devices and services, transportation, audiology, vision services, nutrition services, and family training.  As I said, other services may be provided based on the needs and eligibility of the child and family. 

 So next we're going to talk about why is early intervention important?  Research into baby brain development shows that babies learn and grow at a tremendous rate during their early years.  Babies’ brains are taking in information from the moment they're born.  Babies’ earliest experiences can play a critical role in their brain development and neural pathways that create the foundation for learning behavior and health are most flexible during the first three years of life.  So, the baby's neural pathways are being laid down and developed at a tremendous rate during this time. And while learning does happen at all ages, the brain is the most flexible during these first three years. 

 Research also shows that the brain is strengthened by positive early experiences and stable relationships. That early intervention is likely to be more effective and less costly when provided earlier in life rather than later. And early intervention services have shown to positively impact outcomes across developmental domains. 

 Now we did touch on those domains, and I'll go over those again here real quickly. Those domains include physical, that the ability to see, move, hear, as well as health development.  Cognitive, so that's ability to learn and how your child learns. Communication. This is the ability to understand language and to express needs.  Social emotional, the ability to relate to others, and self-help, (the) ability to dress, eat and take care of oneself. 

Now what if you have a concern about your child's development?  We know that children grow and change rapidly during the first three years of life.  As parents you play a critical role during this time and while all children grow and develop at their own rate, you may have concerns from time to time. So, who can you contact?  

 Referrals to the EDN program can be made a couple of different ways.  One is to your local school district, and this can be if you have an older child, you can talk to their teacher, you can contact your local school building, or you can go through the school district, to the school district office. There is also a statewide child find number, that number is 1-888-806-6287. We also talked about the website for EDN (http://edn.ne.gov).  There is also a referral form on that website that you can go to.   And you can also call us here at PTI.  The phone number for us is 402-346-0525.  We also have an 800 number 800-284-8520. 

 As I mentioned, we will go more into detail around referrals and evaluations in the next podcast. Thank you so much for your attention. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me my email is cshockley@pti-nebraska,org.  Or you can call me at 402-346-0525. Extension 2.  Thank you. 

 Thank you for joining us today on talking special needs a PTI, Nebraska podcast. If you would like more information on today's topic or other special needs topics, please go to www.pti-nebraska.org.  Until our next podcast internet families remember, chaos is our normal

 Transcribed by https://otter.ai


Music by https://www.free-stock-music.com - Upbeat.