For me, the drive to meet a new family is kind of like the excited anticipation of Christmas Eve. I love meeting new families! I've never met a child or family that I didn't learn from. Every one is different- different strengths, different needs, different concerns...
I enjoy getting to know a family, working together with them to develop an individualized program that meets their specific needs. That is what the initial visit is all about!
Your Early Interventionist typically comes to your home for the Initial visit. When parents work outside the home, we can come to your work, meet at a restaurant, etc. Here are key components of this time together!
- Getting to know one another: We will share information with you about our company, our owners and your Early Interventionist. We take time to play with the child and start letting them become familiar with us.
- Learning about your child: If BabyNet had the assessment completed, we will review the results. We will also complete another assessment (HELP or Carolina) while playing with your child and asking questions of you. This is a great time for you to be noticing things your child is doing developmentally as well as some skills that you would like to work on. If your child has been diagnosed with a special need, we will review this as well. We will ask you to share your concerns for your child. We know that you are the expert on your child, and the sharing of your knowledge is invaluable.
- Learning about your family: BabyNet completes a Family Assessment before you are referred to a Early Intervention provide. We will go over this together in order for your Early Interventionist to find out what services you currently have, if there are siblings (we can always include siblings in our Special Instruction!), etc.
- Complete paperwork: With the initation of a new service, there is much paperwork. Some of the documents to be gone over include:
- Service Coordinator/Early Interventionist Provider Choice- You always have choice regarding which company you use, if you want another EI, or if you no longer wish to continue the service. By signing this form, you are consenting for the selected Early Intervention company to provide services.
- Consent to Release & HIPAA- You sign consent regarding who we are allowed to send/receive information.
- Written Prior Notice- You always have the right to 7 days notice before we have a meeting, complete an assessment, make any changes to the IFSP, etc. However, if you would like to complete an IFSP review before 7 days notice, you can sign your consent. This is often done at the first visit in order to get services going as quickly as possible.
- BabyNet Child and Family Rights- A booklet stating all of your rights as a family in the BabyNet system.
- Safety Checklist- A quick yes/no checklist informing parents of recommended practices to keep children safe.
- Developing appropriate goals: Together we will develop an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). This is an educational document that plans out the services that your child will receive. The plan is individualized to your child's needs and your concerns. The assessments your child has received will be listed and then we develop IFSP "outcomes" or goals. You get to select goals, and these are what your Early Interventionist will teach you strategies for during Special Instruction.
- Developing appropriate services: After reviewed assessments and developing goals, we will review services that can be used to help meet these goals. Family Training and Service Coordination will be listed in this section. In addition, some services that might be pursued and listed are vision/hearing evaluations, foreign language interpretations, Physical Therapy Evaluation, etc.
- Reviewing the Transition process: Transition to the school district begins at age 2. At each IFSP review, we will review the process of transitioning to the school district. We will add more on Transition in a later series.
- Scheduling of 1st Family Training visit.
