Dear editor,
I believe there is a real need for early intervention evaluations with daycare-aged children.
Daycare teachers who identify potential developmental delays and behavior issues in younger children they work with should have connections to an evaluation specialist.
This would allow them to identify children who have a need for therapies that would help the child have a better chance of success when they enter pre-K and kindergarten. If children have a need for early intervention and it goes undetected, the process they must go through when they enter school takes approximately one year to complete before the IEP process can be started.
Earlier identification of additional support would allow more time for effective teaching strategies and would be beneficial to the child.
There are options for children to be evaluated by Child Find but that process has to be initiated by the parent. Many times, parents are unaware there is an issue or unwilling to admit their child may have a delay.
If there was a specialist set up to work with the daycare teacher and the child of concern, a parent may be more likely to accept the evaluation results as opposed to a teacher’s opinion. This would possibly make the parent more accepting of therapy options and additional testing.
Having an evaluation specialist in place to work with the daycare staff would be beneficial to the child.
SHANNON KONZ
Pace
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Daycare-aged children need early intervention