Early Childhood Specialists

New Baby Book Bags

Early Literacy Outreach and Promotion

Positive Parenting Solutions

Steps To School

Early Childhood Counseling

Parent Support and Education – This strategy will provide parent support and education services based upon a child’s developmental milestones.

Children are best understood through their developmental progress rather than their age.  Providing information to support parents in the growth and development of their children will assist them in meeting their individual needs.  Adult education and family literacy opportunities benefit both the parent and child by encouraging learning at home. Strategies to meet this objective may include positive discipline, ways to cognitively stimulate infants and children, stages of child development, and infant care.  Strategies will be developed by Collaborative partnerships and reviewed on an annual basis.

The expected outcomes for the Parent Support and Education Objective are to increase parent education, support, and family literacy opportunities.

Early Childhood Intervention - The Special Needs Demonstration Project offers screenings, assessments and referrals for service, addressing the early mental health and socio-emotional development of children.  The Project is funded jointly through the state and local commissions, and under this plan, will be enhanced and renamed the Early Childhood Intervention Program. 

As a requirement of the State Match, the Early Childhood Intervention Program is required to use Ages & Stages Developmental and Social-Emotional Screening Tools, the Parental Stress Index, and other screening tools to assist parents and early childhood service providers in understanding a child’s overall health and development.  The results of these screenings are shared with the family through a child study team model, bringing parents, caregivers and early childhood specialists together to develop a plan to meet the child’s individual needs.  That plan may include referrals for further educational assessments.  The parent education and support of this component will assist parents in better understanding their child through developmental milestones.