Infant, Toddler, and Family Services  Program

Sarintha Buras Stricklin, Ph.D., Program Director

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Goal:                  To serve as an exemplary early intervention services program to support, assist, and train agency personnel, families, students, and others in providing family-centered early intervention services and supports that promote independence and inclusion into the community for young children with special needs and their families.

 

Intended Impact:                   Improve the capacity of agencies and personnel to serve children and families

Improve the delivery of family-centered early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families

Increase the capacity of families to provide their young children with disabilities with more normalized life experiences

Increase the opportunities for families to obtain quality early intervention for young children in natural (inclusive) environments

Topics/Areas of Expertise:

 

Demonstration of exemplary early intervention services and supports

Demonstration of the Individualized Family Services Planning process

Demonstration of assistive technology for young children with special needs and their families

Demonstration of environmental modifications and arrangements for improved participation by young children with special needs

Demonstration, training, technical assistance, and support for professionals and families in the transition from early intervention to preschool services

Training and technical assistance in recommended practices for early intervention personnel

Training and support for families of young children with special needs

Training and technical assistance on assistive technology

Training and technical assistance on collaborative, interdisciplinary teaming

Research on family-centered services

Research on augmentative communication and assistive technology

Research on toy preferences and effective instructional methods for young

children with special needs.

 

Overview of Selected Activities/Accomplishments:

#       Provided direct exemplary early intervention services to over 70 young children and   their families (per year)

#       Ongoing, on-site technical assistance provided to personnel in approximately 14 community child care environments

#       Trained over 250 students across 9 different disciplines (per year)

#       Provided intensive three-day training to 35 professionals on meeting the assistive technology needs of young children with disabilities

#       Developed, refined, and implemented training materials for assistant level service providers in early intervention

#       Provided guest lectures on recommended practices, assistive technology, and use of assistant level personnel in early intervention across six Louisiana universities, including SUNO and Xavier

#       Presented at national forums including the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine, Council for Exceptional Children, International Division of Early Childhood, American Speech and Hearing Association, Association for Childhood Education International, National Association for the Education of Young Children

#       Presented at regional and state forums including Southeast Augmentative Communication Conference, Louisiana Occupational Therapy Association, Louisiana Speech and Hearing Association, Louisiana Association for the Education of Young Children, State Department of Education Superconference, Louisiana Head Start Conference, Department of Education Early Childhood Conference

#       Published 9 articles and 2 book chapters in professional early intervention publications

 

Directions for Future Program Development:

#       Inclusive early intervention curricula development

#       Development of training materials for personnel working with young children with disabilities that include demonstration and feedback components

#       Continued refinement of existing programs to improve the quality of inclusive early intervention services

#       Increase quality training opportunities which focus on interagency and interdisciplinary teaming, and family-centered, person-centered and culturally competent services

#       Facilitate a more seamless service delivery system from birth through age five through collaboration with NICUs, community early intervention programs, pupil appraisal personnel, local educational agencies, and community preschool programs

 

Revised November 2000