Early Childhood/Early Intervention Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What happens when I make a referral to the Early Childhood Department?

A: You will talk to our intake coordinator who will gather information about your child and the concerns that you have. Our intake coordinator will let you know about the next steps that will be taken in the evaluation process and will send your information on to the service coordinator.

Q: What is a service coordinator?

A: Your service coordinator will help your family indentify your strengths and needs, find resources, think about decisions, develop a plan to address your child’s and family’s needs, and help coordinate all the services needed if your child is eligible for the program. Your service coordinator will help set up the multidisciplinary evaluation and can answer questions about the Early Intervention process.

Q: What is a multidisciplinary evaluation?

A: A multidisciplinary evaluation will be performed by two or more professionals who will look at your child’s development and can be done in a variety of places and ways. It will most likely involve talking with you about your child, learning about your child by watching them play, and interacting with your child. Because you know your child best, you will be a very important part of the evaluation process.

Q: How is eligibility decided?

A: Your child and family may receive early intervention services if:

You live in Colorado
Your child is between birth through two years of age
Your child meets one or both of the following two criteria:
- Developmental Delay
  Your child may be determined eligible because they have a significant delay in one or more of these developmental areas:
  - Adaptive or self-help skills such as feeding and dressing
  - Cognitive skills, such as thinking, learning and reasoning
  - Communication skills, such as understanding and using sounds, gestures and words, pointing, understaning your words, expressing thoughts.
  - Physical development, such as vision, hearing, movement and health
  - Social-emotional development, such as getting along with others, expressing feelings, developing relationships.
- Established Physical or Mental Condition
  Your child may be determined eligible because they have been diagnosed with a physical or mental condition that has a high probability of resulting in a significant delay in development as your child gets older even though they may not currently have an observable delay or disability.

Q: What is an IFSP?

A: The Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) describes your child and family and the real-life outcomes you want for your child. The IFSP will talk about the strengths and needs of your child and the strategies to help your child achieve more.

Q: What services are offered in Early Intervention?

A: Services are designed around your families needs and include these popular options: Behavior Therapy, Developmental Intervention, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Speech Language Pathology.