Session Sneak Peek: Milestones

One of the big areas we work on in Early Intervention is general progression towards developmental milestones - in all areas of development. Remember we are looking at all of these areas: cognition, fine motor, gross motor, communication (receptive and expressive), social emotional, and adaptive behavior. So sometimes my sessions look like me providing strategies working on many developmental areas at once.

This is an example of a very common session where I observe playtime and provide “in the moment” coaching. Aka one of the ones where my brain is going a mile a minute - hello rapid activity analysis skills.

In this post, you’ll meet my friend “E” - a 21 month old little one with no formal diagnosis but who scored low (between mild to significant delay) in all areas of development during the evaluation using the Developmental Assessment of Young Children. E also has some sensory processing difficulties: does not like loud noises, sometimes bangs head on toys and objects, does not like water or taking baths.

The pediatrician referred E for concerns related to Autism and the family is actively pursuing further testing. Parent’s primary concern is communication. After a discussion with team members and family during the IFSP meeting, it was decided that I’d take on this kiddo as the team lead.

There is one key element I encourage you to think about in this case: why would the team come to the decision to have OT as team lead, even though the parent's main concern is communication? Hint: think about the role that sensory processing and regulation might play in language development

Note: This is still a fairly new family on my caseload but we have spent time talking about sensory processing and beginning to implement specific strategies to address concerns and difficulties though that may not be reflected in this session - we have chatted about it