• Finding Out
• First Questions
• Telling Others
• Your Feelings
• Looking After Yourselves
• Feeding Your Baby
• Your Baby's Development
• Early Intervention

Early Intervention

What is early intervention?
• Early intervention is professional assistance given to parents, carers and their young children. Therapists help our children learn through play.

• Therapists almost always work as part of a team. Different therapists have different specialist areas. Together they cover all aspects of our children’s development.

• Often therapists offer assessment and advice, and suggest home programmes for parents or caregivers to carry out with the child.

How do I get early intervention ?
• A member of your health-care team can refer you to your local early intervention services. You may be seen in your home or in a centre.

Who is in an early intervention team?
Our babies often see
• visiting neuro-developmental therapist -VNT

• speech-language therapist –SLT

• early intervention teacher

The team may also include paediatricians, health-care nurses, support services, dieticians, play therapists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, social workers and music therapists.

What do Visiting neuro-developmental therapists do?
• work with muscles and movement, children’s growth, development, and everyday living.

• teach parents and carers skills and exercises to assist learning and development.

What do speech-language therapists do?
• assist with any feeding problems.

• help with early communication through play.

• can teach us about the use of signing as our children find it easier to learn to talk if main words are signed.

What do early intervention teachers do ?
• provide advice about building onto children’s strengths to ensure they reach their potential as they learn and develop.

• support parents and family in the home and early childhood centre.

• support teachers to fully include our children into the early childhood setting.
help plan children’s transition to school.