Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/welcoming-families-receiving-early-intervention-services-into-your-early-childhood-program/5023751/
Layla is a 18-month-old toddler. Her mother is returning to work after remaining at home to care for Layla. Like many toddlers, Layla will begin attending a local community child care program. Like all families starting at an early childhood center, they have questions about the daily routine of the classroom that Layla will enter. They wonder about the foods that will be served, nap routines, toileting routines, and playtime activities. They are curious to meet Layla’s new caregivers.
Layla’s parents bring a special perspective to the transition to early childhood. Layla and her family have been receiving early intervention (EI) services since she was eight months old. Her parents were concerned that she was not reaching typical developmental milestones. Their pediatrician encouraged them to seek a screening through EI. Over the past ten months, her pediatrician, family, and EI team have been employing strategies with the help of several therapists, to support her development and address her recently diagnosed cerebral palsy. Now that she is about to join Ruth and Lin’s classroom at a community early childhood center, Layla’s family and EI team are figuring out how being in the early childhood center will change her daily routines so they can ...