How Can Healthcare And Children Providers Help?
We need your help in detecting communication problems earlier in young children. You can help by giving the Checklist to parents of young children. We are eager for you to give the Checklist to parents of any young child in Leon or surrounding counties, even if there are no concerns. With our grant funding, we are interested in gathering information about communication development in as many families as possible from this region. We are interested in both young healthy children and children whose families or service providers have concerns.
What If Families Have Concerns? Families are often the first to raise concerns about their child's development. Concerns raised by the majority of families are warranted, and therefore, it is important to give the Checklist to any family that has any concern about their child's communication development. Some families have concerns about their child, but their child is developing typically. It is important to reassure those families and answer questions that they may have about their child's development. For these families, we can monitor their child's development with our Caregiver Questionnaire to make sure their child is progressing as expected and provide information about typical development.
What If Families Are Not Yet Concerned? Some children are delayed but families are not yet concerned. It can be difficult for parents to learn that their child is not developing as expected. It is important to be careful not to alarm families and to offer support as concerns are raised. It can be confusing to families if one professional tells them that their child is doing fine and another indicates concern. You can help by becoming familiar with early indicators of communication problems. We will try to obtain a release of information from families who you refer and/or serve so that we can send you a copy of our written reports. In this way you can know which children you refer need monitoring and/or intervention. If we can provide intervention early, the child's chances for improvement are much greater