What Developmental Information do Early Intervention Evaluations Provide?

What Developmental Information do Early Intervention Evaluations Provide?

Early Intervention for children ages birth to three years old offer families free developmental evaluations, and therapeutic services to children who are found eligible. Developmental evaluations assess all areas of development: cognitive, social-emotional, physical development, and self-help/adaptive assessment. Each area of development is unique and plays a major role in the child’s functional abilities. All Early Intervention evaluations employ age appropriate standardized testing, materials/toys, and clinical opinion to determine a child’s age equivalent.

The cognitive domain, as assessed by a special educator, includes learning, remembering, thinking, perceiving, feeling emotions, and experiencing their environment. In addition, at this young age, cognition also includes the child’s understanding of language. A child’s cognitive skills are reflected in their play skills and problem solving skills.

The social-emotional component is defined by the child’s ability to interact and relate to other people, including parents, siblings, family members, and peers. The social domain is a fundamental skill necessary in working with children who have been adopted. Social assessment is conducted based on the child’s interaction with their caregivers and circle of extended family members and friends.

Physical development allow the child to manipulate, move around in, and explore. This includes movement and posture, as well as muscle tone and strength. Motor assessment can be categorized into two main physical areas of development: gross motor skills and fine motor skills. Gross Motor are the large muscles used crawl, walk, climb, jump, which are evaluated by a physical therapist. Furthermore, fine motor is defined by the Small muscles needed to hold, build, manipulate, which are evaluated by an occupational therapist.

The adaptive domain, or self help skills, are the functional daily living skills used in tasks such as feeding, dressing, toileting, and sleeping. These skills drastically vary depending on the cultural background and past experiences. For some children, this area of development could be the most vital.

Lastly, communication skills, which are evaluated by a speech-language pathologist measures how the child communicates to let you know their wants/needs. The communication domain is classified by receptive language skills, which is what the child understands, and expressive language, which is what the child says (including non-verbal communication). At times, there can be great disparity between these areas. It is crucial to note that a language delay in a child who is adopted, is a language delay in the child’s native language; not simply a lack of the English language.

Written by: Lilya Popovetsky

Article Source: http://www.adoptiondoctors.com/articles

A Multilingual Development Agency conducts evaluations, in accordance to New York State Department of Health guidelines in your child’s dominant language. Some of languages we offer include, but not limited to, are Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Armenian, Cantonese, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. If you are a Nassau County resident and would like to receive a free developmental evaluation for your child age birth to three years old, please call A Multilingual Developmental Agency at (516) 730 – 5001. Lilya Popovetsky, MA SpEd, CAS, SDA is the founder of A Multilingual Development Agency, an Early Intervention agency for children from birth to three years old in Nassau County, NY. She obtained a Master’s Degree from Columbia University’s Teacher’s College in Early Childhood Special Education, with a dual certification in General Education. Lilya went on to complete an educational administration degree from Hofstra University.

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