Early Interventional Programs and Services support young children with developmental delays or disabilities. These services are designed to meet a child’s needs in physical and cognitive, communication, social and emotional, and adaptive development.
Physical skills: reaching, crawling, walking.
Cognitive skills: include thinking, learning, solving.
Communicational skills: talking, listening, understanding.
Social-emotional skills: playing, interacting.
Adaptive skills: eating and dressing.
A lot of researches reveal that the human brain continues to develop during all our life, and the most important time for its growth and development is from birth to three years of a child’s life. Some children meet developmental milestones more slowly than expected. This is called a developmental delay. Early intervention programs help children improve their development. That is why parents should ask professional help if they have any concerns about their child’s ability to: learn, hearing, mobility and movement, attention, vision, behavior, play, or feeding and nutrition.
Early Intervention is available across Canada for no cost. The Services are funded through the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services. Early Interventional Programs and Services may include:
-Speech therapy.
-Physical therapy.
-Behavioral support.
-Phycological help.
-Mental health therapy.
-Social and emotional development.
-Communication.
-Cognitive development.
-Screening and assessment.
-Autism specific services.
-Family Support and Counselling.
-Funding information services.
-Support to transition to school.
There are some options that will help parents know if their child needs any help:
First, see your family doctor. If your child has any developmental issues your doctor will provide the refferals to the specialists.
Second, parents may follow this link to check the development of their children on their own. Answer the questions provided on the site to see if your child needs help. If you have any issues, call Early Ability Program or Sick Kids to ask about professional assessments. Specialized intervention services, programs for children and family health, and Community Resources you can find here.
The video provided below describes how parents may use a developmental checklist and get help in the Early Ability Program in Toronto.
Some parents ask if they can support their child’s growth and development on their own. The best recommendation is to get access to the Early Intervention program and services. The list of this program is here. Specialists, speech therapists, early intervention educators, resource consultants will work with a child and his family comprehensively. However, the strategies provided below you can implement any time.
1. Observe your child. It is important to know what your child likes to do. Observation helps parents understand how they may support the growth and development of their children.
2. Take notes when you do observations. The questions below may be very supportive:
"What is a favorite toy, food, or play of your child?"
"With whom does your child like to play?"
"How long your child may focus attention on play/activity?"
"What is your child's reaction to loud sounds, new children, or a new environment?"
3. Help your child get new skills when during child's play, exploration, observation, and acting. There are a lot of strategies that may help your child get new skills. Let’s take a look at some of them.
-Keep consistency in your daily routines.
-Manipulate by your child’s favorite toy or play to include new skills. For example, “monkey” will "see" how you will wash your hands.
-Use simple sign language or visual or auditory to help your child express his/her ideas or attract attention to the important action.
-Teach your child social skills by sharing toys and taking turns.
-Encourage your child to say “thank you” or “bye”. Your child can use non-verbal gestures.
Some parents may have a lot of fears about schooling time in the future. They may have questions about how their children may adapt to the school system. The video provided below explains three principles of The Universal Design for Learning, the educational framework that helps give all students an equal opportunity to succeed.
Early Intervention Programs and Services you can find here:
References:
Early Child Development. Ontario. Retrieved from https://www.ontario.ca/page/early-child-development
CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org
Kruk M., (2014) Child from birth to adolescence. McCraw-Hill Ryerson.
Toronto Early Childhood and Family Resource System. Retrieved from http://healthykidstoronto.ca/resource.html#child_dev