Developmental Assessment

When we returned to Ohio and thus to Help Me Grow (Ohio's early intervention organization), we needed to have a second assessment done to identify how Abigail had progressed over the past six months. An assessment is a meeting between various professionals that will be involved with your child's care and your family. It is a chance for each of the professionals to observe and evaluate Abigail against their respective areas of development. Our assessment included a speech therapist, an early intervention specialist, a hearing therapist and a physical therapist (they're were some minor concerns that she had not started crawling yet.) Each professional evaluated Abigail while we discussed daily routines, Abigail's responses to family members, and any concerns that my husband and I had with her development.

Our EI (early intervention specialist) used the Hawaii Early Learning Program (HELP) charts to monitor Abigail's development, while the hearing and speech therapists used a variety of games to monitor both Abigail's verbal and non-verbal responses. The physical therapist conducted a variety of strength and balance tests to evaluate Abigail's motor skills. Each professional will be responsible for providing a copy of their findings reports at the IFSP. These reports will become part of the IFSP and serve as a baseline for future evaluation and comparison.