By Alli Frazier, CEO of Frazier Behavioral Health and Autism Mom
Featuring Lauren Jeunnette, Speech-Language Pathologist at Frazier Behavioral Health
There are a multitude of services that play an important role in a child’s early intervention. Understanding how early intervention can positively impact your child’s future is essential. That is why for this Q&A style Ask Alli segment, I am talking to my friend and colleague, Lauren Jeunnette, a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist at Frazier Behavioral Health. Lauren has worked extensively in providing speech services to children with autism and is a certified AAC specialist. She will describe what early intervention is and answer questions on how families can get started with it and how it is connected to speech.
Q: What are early intervention services?
Early intervention services support toddlers and young children with developmental delays or disabilities to help shape a successful future. These services support children who are behind in reaching developmental milestones to gain the necessary skills to build a successful life. Early intervention services often include speech, occupational, behavioral, or any other therapy or service that fits the child’s needs. Depending on which developmental skills are delayed, there are many different types of specialists who can work with your child.
Q: Why are early intervention services so important?
Early intervention provides the necessary support to young children to progress toward reaching their developmental milestones. Establishing a skill set that ensures they are “on track” for their age, early intervention services also prepare children with developmental delays for success in school. These services also provide support to the parents and caregivers of children with developmental delays to gain knowledge on how they can help their children progress at home throughout a typical day.
Q: Who could benefit from early intervention services?
If parents or caregivers have been told by a doctor or healthcare professional that there is a delay in developmental milestones, their children would benefit from early intervention services. For example, a delay in their first word, crawling, walking, eating, dressing, self-soothing or any other suspected delay in development could justify the need for early intervention. However, even without a developmental delay being reported by a doctor or healthcare professional, families could seek out an evaluation for early intervention services if they suspect any type of delay in a developmental milestone.
Q: Do you have any tips or recommended resources for families looking to start early intervention services?
Families who are interested can ask their child’s doctor to help them get connected with early intervention services. A family can ask their pediatrician which outpatient clinics they recommend in the area that provide early intervention services, speech-language therapy services, occupational therapy services, or physical therapy services. However, a referral from a doctor or other healthcare professional is often not required. Parents or caregivers can look into early intervention services themselves by reaching out to local outpatient clinics that provide services that would meet their child’s developmental needs (i.e., speech therapy, ABA therapy, occupational therapy, etc.).
Q: How are speech-language pathology and early intervention related?
Speech-language therapy services are an integral part of early intervention services. For young children with any type of speech or language delay, early intervention speech therapy is important for a successful future. Early implementation of speech-language therapy services allows children to get a head-start on developing necessary speech and language skills. In doing so, children gain essential knowledge to work towards meeting appropriate developmental milestones.
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Are you a parent, caregiver or educator interested in a child or someone you know receiving early intervention support or services from Lauren Jeunnette or another Frazier Behavioral Health team member? If so, contact Alli Frazier’s company Frazier Behavioral Health, a behavioral health clinic that focuses on the person and helps children and adults with behavioral, social, communication and sensory issues at FrazierBH.com/Scene.
Can’t get enough of Ask Alli? Check out previous Ask Alli segments on the Cleveland Scene website by clicking here and look for the upcoming Ask Alli TV segments at Facebook.com/FrazierBehavioralHealth.
This article appears in Apr 5-19, 2023.