Early Intervention

Early Intervention Services

What Does Baby Watch Do?

The program provides early identification and developmental services for families of infants and toddlers, ages birth to three.
Some of the services offered include:

• A full assessment of a child's current health and development status.
• Service coordination among providers, programs and agencies.
• Strategies to build on family concerns, priorities, & resources (CPR).
• Developmental services: occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech language therapy, etc.

These services are provided through the coordinated effort of parents, community agencies, and a variety of professionals.

Who Qualifies to Receive Early Intervention Services?

Children birth to three years of age who meet or exceed the definition of developmental delays in one or more of the following areas:

• Physical development
• Vision and hearing
• Feeding and dressing skills
• Social and emotional development
• Communication and language
• Learning, problem solving and play skills

Since baby Katea was born prematurly, she automatically qualifies for the early intervention program.  We already know that she will be a little delayed in her development.....because even though she's 6 months old already, she really should only be 2 1/2 months old.  The early intervention people come to our house to work with her developmentally.....to make sure she's at least meeting the milestones and requirements for her 2 month adjusted age...and to try and help her develop some skills to help her act her actual age.  They say she'll be fully caught up developmentally, both physically and mentally, when she's 2 years old.  Until then, we just have to work with her to help her along!

Our first early intervention visit was last week.  I didn't really know what to expect, but was plesantly surprised with how the visit went.  Shawn was the name of the early intervention specialist that came to visit us, and that visit just consisted of an assessment of baby Katea, where she's at developmentally, where she needs to be, things I could work on to help her progress.... he was explaining what the program was, what it has to offer and he answered any questions I had.  I loved that he took her from me, held her, played with her....he got down on the floor with her and did some exercises.  Her actual age (6 months) she should already be rolling over.  She's no where near that yet.  He showed me some exercises I could do to help her out.  He gave us some flash cards with black and white pictures on them and they immediately caught baby's attention.  She followed them all over with her eyes....I was nothing but big smiles when Shawn was telling me how impressed he was with her!  :)   Her little legs are strong and if you hold her up, she'll stand on them....that was awesome, but her neck is not as strong as it needs to be.  She hates tummy time, so I haven't really been making her do it.  He explained how important tummy time is, and how much it will help not only strengthen and develop her neck muscles, but also it will help her get in the position to crawl.  He gave me some suggestions to lay her on her boppy pillow or in the bumbo seat.....I've tried both of those and she HATES both of them!  She's a pretty content baby and she hardly ever cries except when she's hungry....but she screams her head off when she does tummy time, even with the boppy and the bumbo!  :(  Sorry baby girl, you gotta do it....it'll only help you out!

He asked me if I had any questions and I asked him to look at her head.  How flat it's getting is really worrying me.  He did a little assessment on her and noticed that her right ear is a little farther forward than her left.  That just means that she's been laying more on her right side than her left.  He told me to make sure to lay her on her left side and hopefully the next time they check her, her ears will have evened out.

He also wants her to be more interested in her feet....he said if she starts to notice and grab her feet, it will help her to roll over.  She sucks on her hands and fingers all the time to show us she's hungry....but other than that, she doesn't really notice her feet.  She hasn't hit that stage where her hands fascinate her.  She can hold on to things, but she doesn't really realize that she's holding it.  I've been putting a rattle in her hand and she moves it, but it's more of her just moving than moving to make the rattle sound.  She just doesn't realize it yet.  I'm working on it with her, and hopefully soon she'll realize them.  She's amazing in so many ways, her developmental will come with time and work....I know it will!  :)

Shawn was going to go back and assign me a developmental specialist to work specifically with baby Katea, and that person will come weekly to work with her.  Today I got a call from Melinda, she's who will be working with us.  Our fist appointment with her is next week.  Can't wait!