Early Childhood Intervention

Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) programs are designed to provide aid to children with physical or developmental challenges. Although eligibility begins at birth, the cutoff age is dependent on the program (generally between the ages of three and five.) All children with a diagnosis of lissencephaly or any other neuronal migration disorder are eligible for early childhood intervention. Once a child is no longer eligible for an ECI program due to age, they are transfer red to special education programs in the local public school.

Most early intervention programs make the parents the central members of a team of professionals whose goal is to best meet the special needs of each child. The parents are involved in making decisions about the therapies and activities that will become central to the child's life. They also lead in the planning of goals for the child. While many professionals may develop a fondness for a child, only the parents, who bear the burden for rearing the child, have the greatest interest and responsibility for the child. The parents, therefore, must remain central to the entire early intervention process.

For therapies to become beneficial, they must be repeated often. However, more and more children are being enrolled into early intervention programs as word of these program's existence and effectiveness become known. As a result, many programs do not have the staff available to meet the needs of all children. This further emphasizes the importance of the parents. They are able to perform most if not all of their child's therapies when a trained therapist is unavailable.

The initial meetings between the parents and early childhood professionals are very important. It is during these meetings that the foundation for the care of the child are laid. Parents should not rush through these meetings. They should make sure that they understand the roles that they will have during the evaluation and therapy segments of the early intervention process. It is important to understand that your involvement in the process will vary over time, and may increase or decrease depending on periodic assessments of your child's development.

The following guidelines should help maximize the benefit of the early childhood experience:

• Minimize anxiety. Do not allow your child to be separated from both parents. The anxiety caused by separation may cause your child to perform poorly.
• Make sure that the child is comfortable with the examiner. Allow plenty of time before any testing for the child to get to know the examiner. This may require more than one session. The goal is to make a fair assessment of the child's abilities and weaknesses.
• Do not rely solely on the results of formal testing. The tests should be but one part of the assessment. Often children with special needs do not follow the same developmental sequences as do the majority of children. This results in scores that may not reflect the true weaknesses and abilities of the child. Besides test results, the experiences of the parents with the child must also be taken into account, as well as observations of the interactions between the parents and the child. 

Before you take your child to an assessment remember:

• No one knows your child better than you. You have the responsibility for your child. Your feelings and observations are important, do not give up if the team does not place the same importance on an observation that you do. Talk it over with the team so that you are able to understand their point of view and they yours.  
• Don't try to take a crash course to learn all of the terminology. When speaking with the other team members use words that you are comfortable with. If you do not understand a term, have it explained to you.
• Don't feel that you have to go it alone. If it helps, bring a friend or other family member to help out. Let them take notes and listen to the session. That way you have someone to help review and clarify the discussions after you're home and all those questions you forgot to ask suddenly come to mind.
• Don't neglect your needs. You can best help your child when you are able to function properly. It is helpful to develop a support group. People that are able to help, or just listen to your frustrations and joys. If you have other children, you will most likely need a large group of people willing to baby-sit for the multitude of doctor and therapy visits. Finding one person to line up baby-sitting takes a tremendous pressure off of you, and is able to spread the burden around so no one burns out.