Children grow at a remarkable pace—sometimes seemingly right before our eyes. Each child also grows at their own pace. While that can be faster for some than others, there are some standard milestones parents should watch for, even as early as two months after birth. Monitoring your child’s development for signs of delay is the beginning of early intervention. For children with disabilities, it can make all the difference in minimizing (and even preventing) certain challenges as they continue to grow.
With this in mind, Easterseals Arkansas is committed to providing comprehensive early intervention services. We partner with you to “Make the First Five Count” and foster joy, health, and confidence for your little ones.
What is early intervention?
The CDC defines early intervention as “services and supports that are available to babies and young children with developmental delays and disabilities and their families”. These supports can include speech, occupational, and physical therapies; assistive technologies, family training, health and nutrition assistance, and more.
Prioritizing early intervention for children with disabilities is essential because it helps address developmental delays. Firstly, it focuses your parental awareness to identify potential issues sooner. Secondly, it offers you specific, individualized pathways to equip your child with the skills they need to thrive if issues are found. Importantly, the “early” of early intervention is key in lessening the more challenging effects of delays and disabilities further down the road.
Benefits of Early Intervention for Children with Disabilities
Early intervention offers your child a healthy start, but it also provides long-term benefits that contribute to their success well into adulthood. Some of these benefits include improvements to:
- Academic Outcomes: Research demonstrates that early intervention programs improve academic outcomes like placement in special education programs, readiness for school, grade retention, and high school graduation rates.
- Social Skills: Early intervention also supports children’s mental health by both enhancing social and emotional skill development and strengthening familial connections.
- Development Foundations: Children aided by early intervention indicate a better grasp on the foundational development aspects of thinking, moving, and communicating.
- Future Diagnoses: One significant study found that “1 in 3 infants and toddlers who received early intervention services did not later present with a disability or require special education.”
- Quality of Life: All of these benefits compound so that children receiving early intervention support experience greater overall wellbeing and achievement throughout their lives.
Easterseals Arkansas’s Early Intervention Services for Children with Disabilities
Easterseals Arkansas is your trusted source to help you lay the groundwork for your little one’s success. We strive to “Make the First Five Count”. We offer specialized services and resources that are designed to make the most of your child’s first few years of life and their expanded development capacity during those years.
To start, we provide easy access to the Ages & Stages Questionnaires® (ASQ-3)—a confidential online screening tool you can use to check your child’s developmental progress. Then, depending on their needs, you can contact us any time to inquire about the early intervention programs best suited to support your child, including:
- High-Risk Infant Monitoring: We house Arkansas’s only High-Risk Infant Monitoring Program. Led by pediatric physical, occupational, and speech therapists, together with a family resource coordinator, this program offers an integrated, individualized approach to your new baby’s care and supported growth.
- Pediatric Outpatient Therapy: This program provides comprehensive, personalized treatment in physical, occupational, and/or speech therapy for children newborn to 18 years of age on pediatrician referral.
- Developmental Preschools: Our three-star rated (by Better Beginnings) developmental preschools—located in Little Rock, and Stuttgart, AR—are designed to meet and exceed each child’s individual needs, whether they have developmental challenges or not. This includes a robust curriculum of varied subjects, pediatric developmental therapies, assistive technology, and specially trained early childhood special education teachers and staff who will partner with you in educating and nurturing your child.
- Inpatient Rehabilitation: This program is for children ages 3-18 years old. We provide customized 24/7 care with the goal to transition your child into the setting that best enhances their potential. This includes multi-disciplinary therapeutic services, life-skill developing activities, certified special education (affiliated with the Little Rock School District), and community-connected enrichment activities. The goal is to get your child back into the community, living to their fullest independence and potential.
Easterseals Arkansas Success Stories: Making a Difference for Real Arkansas Families
One of the best ways we can demonstrate our proven success rate is to share the stories of the real Arkansas families who have benefited from our early intervention services. Take a look!
Jacob & Haven: Empowered by Early Intervention
Jacob and Haven are two remarkable children whose lives were altered by complications during their births. Jacob’s mom spent a month in hospital prior to his early arrival at only 27 weeks gestation. Jacob was not expected to survive—let alone eat, talk, or walk on his own.
Haven’s delivery appeared to have gone smoothly at first, but the discovery of a congenital heart defect placed her in open-heart surgery at just 12 days old. Her heart stopped for nearly an hour during the operation, leading to permanent brain damage which resulted in cerebral palsy.
But that’s not the end of their stories:
“Easterseals is a well put together army of rescuers.”
These two children’s lives began with adversity and uncertainty, but Easterseals Arkansas was there to help. Through the early interventions of occupational, physical, and speech therapy, as well as purposeful independence-building strategies, Jacob and Haven were able to flourish and thrive, their lives totally transformed.
How to Get Started
If you are considering early intervention services for your child, there are practical steps you can take to get started. Early diagnosis and evaluation are crucial. So, if you are concerned that your child may be slightly delayed in reaching their developmental milestones, give our Ages & Stages screening a try. It only takes 10-20 minutes, and it can help you assess whether your child may be in need of further help to get back on track.
In addition to our screening tool, you can read all about our service offerings on our website. Some services require pediatrician referral. We welcome inquiries about any and all services or supports you may be interested in. Our mission is to help your child thrive and point you in the right direction of support to make that happen.
The CDC also offers a helpful set of Developmental Milestones checklists at various stages. You can download the checklist PDFs, or if you’re more of a mobile user, you can check out their Milestone Tracker mobile app for keeping track of your little one’s progress.
Additional Resources
Easterseals isn’t your only line of defense for early intervention. Here are a few additional websites you can visit to learn more about the importance of monitoring your child’s development early:
- National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
- Division for Early Childhood (DEC)
- National Center on Health, Behavioral Health, and Safety (NCHBHS)
Let Easterseals Arkansas help you build a firm foundation.
If you’re ready to get a head start on early intervention for children with disabilities, Easterseals Arkansas is ready to support you. Call 501-227-3600 or contact us online today to learn more about our early intervention services and schedule an evaluation for your kiddo.
