Special Needs Caregiver Tips and Strategies Early Intervention in Special Education By Terri Mauro facebook twitter linkedin Terri Mauro is the author of "50 Ways to Support Your Child's Special Education" and contributor to the Parenting Roundabout podcast. Learn about our editorial process Terri Mauro Fact checked by Fact checked by Emily Swaim on January 11, 2021 linkedin Emily is a fact checker, editor, and writer who has expertise in psychology, health and lifestyle content. Learn about our editorial process Emily Swaim Updated on January 11, 2021 Print Marc Romanelli/The Image Bank/Getty Images What are early intervention services? The term refers to services given to very young children with developmental delays and disabilities, generally from birth until the child turns three. For this reason, these programs are sometimes called "Birth to 3" or "Zero to 3." Learn more about early intervention services and why they benefit disabled children and their families with this overview. What Early Intervention Services Include Early intervention services include speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. They are provided either in an office or in the child's home. The hope is that these services, provided early, will address any delays in development so that the child will need less intensive services (or no services) later on. At age 3, if a child still needs help, they might be referred to the school district for special education preschool. How to Find Services Your pediatrician should be able to refer you to the agency that handles early intervention in your area. If not, find your state's office in charge of early intervention and make the contact directly. A doctor's referral is not required to get an evaluation. Your child will be evaluated by therapists and experts in early childhood education to identify problems that might respond to early intervention. Every state has certain disabilities or conditions that automatically qualify a child for early intervention. The evaluation will inform an Individualized Family Services Plan (IFSP), which will lay out the plans for your child's early intervention. What an IFSP Means for Your Special-Needs Child Why These Programs Help Parents In addition to getting your child assistance with the earliest developmental milestones, early intervention can be a milestone in your parenting. It will mark your first experience with evaluations, team meetings, jargon-filled documents, and test scores, all of which may seem overwhelming at first. Unless early intervention takes care of all your child's issues, you will likely have this experience again and again as your child rolls through special education. Your advocacy style may be fairly low-key, and the decisions made may seem to be relatively low-stakes now. In reality, however, the experiences you have now will start to shape the advocate you'll become as your child enters K-12 schools. Early intervention is also a good opportunity to start practicing the sort of collaboration you'll hope to build later with school personnel. Therapists in particular can be a good source of exercises to do between sessions to promote your child's growth and development. Particularly if they're in your home, be sure to ask questions and pick their brains and take advantage of their expertise to build your own. Your child is not the only one who will be building new skills. Wrapping Up Some parents postpone getting early intervention services for their children. They may reason that their child is just slower than others and will catch up to their peers soon enough. This is not only wishful thinking, but it can also be detrimental to a child's potential. Early intervention can significantly improve a child's social, educational, and emotional outcomes, so don't avoid these services. Welcome them! Early Intervention for Premature Babies Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Get diet and wellness tips to help your kids stay healthy and happy. Sign Up You're in! Thank you, {{form.email}}, for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. What are your concerns? Other Inaccurate Hard to Understand Submit Article Sources Verywell Family uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What is "early intervention"?. Updated December 9, 2019. Khetani MA, Richardson Z, McManus BM. Social disparities in early intervention service use and provider-reported outcomes. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2017;38(7):501–509. doi:10.1097/DBP.0000000000000474 Sullivan K, Stone WL, Dawson G. Potential neural mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of early intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder. Res Dev Disabil. 2014;35(11):2921-2932. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.07.027 Barger B, Rice C, Simmons CA, Wolf R. A systematic review of Part C early identification studies. Topics Early Child Spec Educ. 2018;38(1):4–16. doi:10.1177/0271121416678664 Lee YH. The meaning of early intervention: a parent's experience and reflection on interactions with professionals using a phenomenological ethnographic approach. Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being. 2015;10(1):25891. doi:10.3402/qhw.v10.25891