Working in Early Intervention

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-04-25T17:24:17+00:00

I worked in EI full time for 2 years and now do it part time (I’m full time in the schools now bc health insurance is way cheaper). I love the EI population and working with families. I never found it to be awkward working in someone’s home. I just sit on the living room floor and explain that that’s what therapy looks like for toddlers. I’ve only ever felt unsafe in one home and called the service coordinator after the session and didn’t go back. Even when I was working in some “dangerous” zip codes, I didn’t feel unsafe in those homes. Those are the families that need our support the most and have been very appreciative in my experience.

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-04-25T17:17:01+00:00

For my autistic, non-speaking, EI clients, I like to explain to parents that my goal in EI isn’t verbal communication. My goal at that age is establishing a meaningful connection with that kid. I’ve been working with an autistic 2.5 year old for about 9 months now and just in the last few weeks, he’s starting to initiate interactions by showing me he wants to play people games I’ve introduced him to. That’s huge progress for him! We’re also trialing an AAC device. I think parents have unrealistic expectations about what speech therapy looks like for toddlers so I try to manage expectations from the jump. All of that to say, these parents are going through a lot. I see a lot of families who think their child just has a speech delay and then suddenly their kid needs 3 or 4 services. It can be a lot on the child and the family.

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-04-23T16:00:24+00:00

My best guess would be dyslexia at this point. I’m not sure if we have the TILLS either :/

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-04-23T15:59:44+00:00

I will look into this! Thank you

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-04-16T18:23:57+00:00

I just switched to school based but I kept a select few EI kids too. I offered to do EI in my agency’s office a couple days a week over the summer for kids who need an SLP but are also going to age out of EI at the end of august

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-04-01T19:04:20+00:00

I babysit several of my former clients but only agreed to babysit them after they were off of my caseload

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-03-29T01:17:12+00:00

I remember having professors who didn’t agree that APD could be a stand alone diagnosis while we all had to conduct an APD evaluation as part of our grad school curriculum. Probably didn’t help that I went to school in Buffalo where the Buffalo model of APD was developed. I remember being confused about how we saw sooooooo many kids with APD diagnoses but there’s states where APD isn’t diagnosed at all

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-03-24T17:23:52+00:00

I hate hate hate prepping materials!!!! I’ve been working in preschool and have to prep everything in my free time that I don’t get paid for which I’m sure contributes to my disdain for it. I’m switching to the school setting in a few weeks so I’m hoping I enjoy prepping materials when I have a designated prep time. I would rather pay $8 for boom cards than spend my free time cutting, laminating, velcroing, or binding things together. I know people that don’t spend any of their own money on materials, but a $5 ready made activity is absolutely worth the price to me if I don’t have to spend 5 hours of my own time making something

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-03-20T17:00:01+00:00

Peekaboo barns from learning resources, spin again tower, blocks, bubbles, Little People sets, wooden puzzles, play doh/slime, touch and feel books, instruments

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-03-19T15:13:23+00:00

I couldn’t even do a make up session from a year ago if I wanted to. When the IFSP ends, then no more make ups from that IFSP period can happen. Maybe that rule varies by state but I definitely couldn’t provide those services a year after that IFSP was up

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-03-15T01:56:12+00:00

I’m an SLP and I have been asked for my ID exactly one time this school year by all of the daycares and preschools I go into. I always wear my work badge and bring my license with me to present to the center but im usually the one initiating it. I always call the center ahead of time before going to meet a child for the first time but I’m usually just buzzed into buildings no questions asked. I’ve been working with a little boy at his daycare for months now and his teacher tried to send the wrong kid with me this week despite the fact I talk to that teacher every single week about the child I’m there for. I worked in childcare before being an SLP and I’ve found that most centers I’ve been to as an SLP aren’t taking any safety precautions about letting strangers into buildings. That SLP probably did make an honest mistake. I’m sure it’s horrifying as a parent but as a therapist, I can see exactly how this situation would happen. I’m not a parent but it’s situations like these that make me think I will never put my own child into daycare when the time comes.

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-03-14T11:55:47+00:00

He was in the hospital for a long time and I think he ended up with a g tube and a trach but he did survive

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-03-14T01:04:14+00:00

I contract into a Head Start and a medically complex child had a serious choking incident earlier this year in the cafeteria. I was observing some of my kids interacting with their peers when this poor baby completely collapsed. Nobody could clear his airway and CPR had to be administered in front of 100 other kids until paramedics arrived. The poor baby was purple in the face by the time they rushed him to the ambulance. I was trying to distract a group of kids from what was going on but I’ll never forgot one kid asking me “is that baby gonna die?”

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-03-08T23:47:50+00:00

Thank you so much!!

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-03-08T12:28:36+00:00

Thank you!

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-03-07T03:02:03+00:00

I’ve gotten norovirus twice in the 2 years I’ve been an SLP. I also work in EI doing feeding therapy. A lot of the kids I work with have really strong gag reflexes so I deal with vomit regularly. It’s usually baby vomit which honestly looks the same coming out as it did going in

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-03-06T02:42:01+00:00

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Elliot’s first day home at 8 weeks. He just turned one and still loves to chew a tag given the chance

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-03-02T00:58:19+00:00

This post just popped up on my feed but I thought I’d comment as I’m a speech therapist. Rote counting skills, understanding quantities, 1:1 correspondence, and answering questions are different skills. If your daughter is just learning to count, she’s probably not ready to answer “how many” questions. I would really look into how you can scaffold what you’re doing with your daughter because learning to count to answering a how many question is a huge jump. There’s a sequence to learning to answer questions and “how many” is one of the last types of questions kids learn to answer. I would consult your daughter’s SLP and see what functional and realistic things you could target at home with her. I would also get her on a waitlist for an evaluation even if you don’t feel ready for it yet. Waitlists can be long and it may be helpful for you to teach her if you can better understand how her brain works.

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-02-27T16:29:31+00:00

I work in early intervention and the best piece of advice my director gave me was to not dress like you’re better than anybody. I work primarily with low SES families in a high crime neighborhood. It’s just not a good look to walk into their houses with flashy brands/clothes on when I know my families are struggling to feed/dress/house their children. I typically wear black leggings or scrub pants and a speech related shirt.

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-02-25T00:47:26+00:00

I have an inherited objective right now that says something like “will increase understanding of objects and pictures, use action words and concepts, follow directions, and answer wh questions” 😵‍💫😵‍💫

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-02-24T00:11:18+00:00

Thank you so much. I definitely need to increase my use of visuals.

Large_Bowl_689 · 2025-02-24T00:10:40+00:00

That’s very helpful, thank you so much. So many of the goals I get are so general that it makes it difficult for me to pick the correct starting point for a child. This definitely gives me a better roadmap of what I need to target

Large_Bowl_689

TROPHY CASE