Blog Post #5: Early Intervention. What Services Hold Promise?

Blog Post #5: Early Intervention.  What Services Hold Promise? 

            Early intervention can be incorporated in any person's life at any age.  When looking at preventing academic failure, early intervention is one of the key aspects in order to prevent difficulties.  Early intervention is a system in which there are services for individuals that are delayed or having difficulties in physical, social, or academic needs and it is in place to promote a person’s grow and development in the early years of life.  Some of the beneficial aspects of having early intervention services delivered at an early age includes; improvements on developmental, social and educational gains, reducing some future costs in special education or rehabilitation needs, and it can help individuals with disabilities grow up to becoming a productive, independent individual. 

            When looking at some of the information that was provided by Dr. Dove, one of the powerpoints included three reasons as to why the early years are critical.  When saying early years, this does not just mean before grade school, but it includes middle school and high school years also.  The three reasons that were identified in the powerpoint include: the earlier a child is identified as having a developmental delay or disability, the greater the likelihood the child will benefit from intervention strategies designed to compensate for the child's needs, families benefit from the support given to them through the intervention process, and schools and communities benefit from a decrease in costs because more children arrive at school ready  to learn.  Even though these reasons are geared more towards the early years of life, it can also relate to the older children.  

            From my personal experience, I have worked and volunteered in numerous buildings that provide individuals with different services.  Some of these services included speech, occupational, and physical therapies.  While sitting in on these therapy sessions, I have seen individuals improve socially, physically, and academically throughout the weeks and months of attending these sessions.   Even though they are attending these early intervention services, I do however believe that only attending these session did not caused the improvements.  I believe that the parents, families, and any other people that are involved in the individual’s life all have a factor as to how an individual develops.  Collaboration is a key element between the therapist and the individual’s caregiver.  Also, while sitting in on the therapy sessions, there were individuals at various age levels from one year until age seventeen. This is important to notice because no matter what age children are, they are still developing and are at the prime age to learn the more information.  Also, depending on what the child needs to grow on developmentally, all of the services are just as important as the other.  The services all work on different developmental factors, so depending on the child, they can all be useful.

                        When working on speech therapy with children, each stage of life is important.  In the early elementary years, a child can just be learning how to produce individual sounds.  During the middle and high school years, they can be working on how to produce sentences, phonics, or other critical aspects to language.  This can also been seen in other therapy sessions, as a child grows, the more they should know.