The Tuscarawas County Board of Developmental Disabilities’ Early Intervention Specialists are ready to help families today.

Including You is brought to you by the Tuscarawas County Board of Developmental Disabilities.

Early Intervention (EI) is a partnership developed to offer help to parents and families when there are concerns regarding their child’s development. Dedicated Intervention Specialists work with your child to detect early signs of delays in one or more of the following areas: hearing, seeing, moving, thinking, talking, and/or playing. Officials then build strategies, connect families with supports and resources with a goal to enhance the child’s learning and development through everyday activities in everyday places.

Children from birth to age three living in Tuscarawas County who may be demonstrating a developmental delay or health concern may be eligible for TuscBDD services. Services are tailored to meet the needs of the child’s natural learning environment such as in the home or at daycare. Infants and toddlers learn best through everyday experiences and interactions with familiar people in familiar places, for example, and the TuscBDD team builds strategies with that in mind.

“Working alongside the child’s caregivers, Early Intervention team members works on finding meaningful opportunities throughout the child’s day to target outcomes important to the family. Children can make significant progress in their development when interacting with people they feel closest to during meaningful play activities,” explained Eva McClave, TuscBDD Early Intervention Speech-Language Pathologist. “Working collaboratively at the first stages of a child’s life, the Early Intervention team can help a child establish a strong foundation of skills to best prepare them as they enter preschool.”

Additionally, an initial referral is made to the local Help Me Grow program now being overseen by the Educational Service Center in New Philadelphia. From there, the family is connected with a Service Coordinator who helps them access services. And then, an evaluation is conducted to further determine and identify the child’s needs.

These services are provided at no cost to the family and are primarily funded through TuscBDD’s local levy dollars.

Team members may include:

• Parents
• Developmental Specialist
• Early Intervention Specialist
• Speech-Language Pathologist
• Occupational Therapist
• Physical Therapist
• Health Professionals
• Help Me Grow Service Coordinator

For more information, visit TuscBDD online.