Page 118 - Family Resource Guide Fall/Winter 2024/2025

SPECIAL NEEDS NORTH STATE PARENT FAMILY RESOURCE GUIDE FALL/WINTER 2024/2025
Parent Infant Programs — Early Developmental Intervention for
North State Families
BY DR. MATT CHESTNUT, OWNER & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, PARENT INFANT PROGRAMS
Being a parent is a wonderful and life-changing experience. It can also be extremely stressful and demanding, especially if your child is experiencing developmental challenges. It is natural for all parents to have concerns about
their child’s development. The difficulty can be in determining if your child’s development warrants concern and would benefit from professional support.
Parent Infant Programs provides assessment and support of children’s special needs
Parent Infant Programs is an early intervention organization that can help you determine whether your child is experiencing developmental delays and can support you in providing development supports if they are needed.
A Parent Infant Programs Development Specialist can perform a development assessment to find out if your child is having challenges in one of five developmental areas, including cognitive, fine and gross motor skills, communication, social/emotional development and adaptive abilities. This assessment takes place in your home and is basically a targeted play session using toys and activities with which your child is familiar.
If there are challenges identified in any of these areas, the Developmental Specialist may recommend early intervention services such as Infant Developmental Services and/ or speech therapy. Parent Infant Programs has provided Infant Developmental Services in Shasta, Tehama, Butte and Glenn Counties for almost 50 years.
Embedded teaching strategies make teaching and learning natural and easy
At Parent Infant Programs, each family is assigned a Developmental Specialist with expertise in supporting children’s developmental progress. The Developmental Specialist’s job is to support parents and other caregivers in embedding teaching strategies into their child’s everyday experiences.
The best way for children to learn is to practice new skills throughout their day and the best way parents can support this frequent learning is to utilize teaching strategies that are natural and readily accessible throughout the day. Our job is to help support you to maximize your child’s development.
Learning happens every day for your child
Help your child’s
development by...
• Including your child in everyday activities
• Letting your child make choices throughout the day
• Talking to your child about the things they are doing
• Talking to your child about the things they have done
Developmental Specialists listen to and work with parents
When you and your child receive Parent Infant Programs’ services, the first thing a Developmental Specialist will do is listen and appreciate your concerns. You are the expert and very best teacher for your child, so it is important that we understand what you need and want. The next step is to help identify routines and experiences throughout your day where we can embed early intervention teaching strategies to support your child’s developmental growth.
Parent Infant Programs services typically involve weekly home visits to work with you and your child to identify successful teaching strategies and provide support in areas of need. We also continue to adapt and change our support and strategies as developmental progress occurs. Mackenzie’s story is a real-life example of what this type of intervention might look like.
Mackenzie is a 2-year-old girl who has some difficulty communicating. Mackenzie’s mother, Nancy, is concerned that she isn’t talking. Nancy and the Developmental Specialist decided that a goal for Mackenzie is for her to use more words and word combinations so she can make her wants and needs known to her family. Mackenzie enjoys rolling a ball back and forth with her mother. Nancy and the Developmental Specialist decide to imbed learning opportunities into ball play to help Mackenzie imitate words or use words spontaneously during play. After some coaching from the Developmental Specialist, Nancy modeled words like “ball,” “catch” and “throw.” Watching for imitation, the Developmental Specialist and Nancy noticed that Mackenzie attempted to say “ball.” The Developmental Specialist and Mackenzie’s mom continued to encourage Mackenzie to say “ball” while having the ball rolled to her. Because this was so successful, Nancy and the Developmental Specialist identified other areas throughout the day that this strategy might help Mackenzie use more words. This way Mackenzie could practice using words all day long.
As you can see, the Developmental Specialist supports parents in identifying and embedding teaching strategies throughout the child’s day to ensure that we are maximizing the learning opportunities for the child. Specific goals and teaching strategies used are unique to each child and family.
For more information about early intervention services or Parent Infant Programs visit parentinfantprograms.com.
PARENT INFANT PROGRAMS
Providing Early Intervention services in Northern California for over 40 years
Parentinfantprograms.com
118 North State Parent Family Resource Guide Fall/Winter 2024/2025 • www.northstateparent.com
Parent Infant Programs gives parents strategies for helping their children to overcome developmental delays in fun and joyful ways.