Early Intervention is a government program of services for children with a developmental delay from birth to 36 months.
Despite children typically not beginning to use words until 12 to 15 months, there are other skills that they use to communicate even before these ages! Babbling and cooing, pointing and reaching, eye contact and laughing are all considered infant communication skills! The Early Intervention program also provides multiple types of therapy and intervention, including occupational services.
The Early Intervention program is run through state government services at no cost to the client. Keep reading to learn more about how Early Intervention programs can benefit your child's development.
Any child who is between birth and 36 months of age and is indicated as needing support through Early Intervention testing is eligible for Early Intervention services. Speech-language pathologists can refer to Early Intervention services following below-average scores on early language testing.
AAC communication devices are useful for everyone! It supports children who need to express themselves, make requests, engage others in conversation, and build their language skills.
Early Intervention speech therapy is extremely important because the younger a child receives Intervention, the faster they improve and the more progress they make overall! Children develop skills from learning a tremendous amount of information in the critical period, which is typically considered from birth to five years of age. Children are likely to make more progress quickly in this period, and Early Intervention takes advantage of that by supporting the child's development at younger ages.
Yes! Alabama's Early Intervention system typically provides appointments twice a month at the client's place of residence. Twice a month is fantastic support, but if you would like more support or feel that your child could benefit from more visits, you can see a private speech-language pathologist for services alongside Early Intervention services!
As parents, you spend the most time with your kids! Parents are one of the biggest resources for helping increase language exposure and language modeling. There are several different strategies and parent coaching models that can be implemented at home. These strategies teach parents different ways to optimize their daily routines and playtime to increase and expand upon their child's language skills.