How to Access Early Intervention Speech Therapy

early intervention

Are you worried about your late-talking toddler? Here are the steps for how to access early intervention speech therapy.

Get a Hearing Screening

We recommend you get your child’s hearing checked as a first step, even if your child passed their newborn hearing screening. This is important because hearing and speech are closely related. Any hearing loss can significantly impact a child’s ability to communicate effectively. Take special note if your child has had frequent ear infections. You can start the process of getting your child’s hearing checked with your pediatrician’s support. Learn more about hearing screenings.

Request a Speech Therapy Referral

While talking with your pediatrician about a hearing evaluation, request a speech therapy referral. If your pediatrician supports a speech assessment, they will likely refer you to your state’s early intervention program. They may also give you some local names of SLPs they have sent children to in the past.

Depending on your region, you may find that the SLPs local to you have full waitlists. You can also look for a speech-language pathologist through ASHA’s ProFind, local mother’s group forums, or a good ol’ fashioned Google search!

How Do I Self-Refer to My State's Early Intervention Program?

You can self-refer to your state’s early intervention program; this is an excellent option if your pediatrician wants to take a “wait and see” approach. We vastly prefer the “let’s just see!” approach to early intervention. All states have an early intervention program.

At the bottom of this post is a table with each state’s early intervention program website. Locate your state and follow the steps to refer your child for speech and language concerns. The referral process looks different in each state/region.

What to Expect Next

Once you make the referral for your child to be assessed by your state’s early intervention program, you should expect to hear from a service coordinator (maybe called case manager) within two weeks. The case manager will guide you through the early intervention process.

What Does a Service Coordinator Do?

The service coordinator will schedule an initial meeting with you to collect all the necessary information and paperwork to set up an initial evaluation. This person is responsible for writing and updating your child’s Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) based on the recommendations from the first assessment and your goals for your child.

The service coordinator will continue to guide your family and coordinate ongoing services for your child should your child qualify. This service coordinator also manages the transition from the early intervention program to your local school district before your child turns three.

Initial Early Intervention Evaluation Appointment

The service coordinator will arrange an initial evaluation appointment between you and the evaluation team. Typically, this team is selected based on your feedback regarding your concerns for your child’s development. Most often, you will meet with a developmental therapist and a speech-language pathologist if you have speech and language concerns. Other participants may include an occupational therapist, physical therapist, or behavior specialist.

The initial appointment is typically about an hour long. You should expect the following things to happen during this appointment:

Your concerns about your child’s development will be reviewed.

If you are in a bilingual household, you may be asked to translate for the team; if you do not speak the evaluator’s language or don’t feel comfortable translating, an interpreter should be present to support you in documenting your child’s language development in their language.You will review your child’s developmental and medical history, including developmental milestones, how they interact with others, their social history (e.g., who lives in your home and cares for your child during the day), and language exposure information.

You will play with your child, and the evaluators will observe this interaction. The evaluators will also take turns playing with your child.

The evaluators will ask more specific questions about your child’s development and complete formal evaluation questionnaires. Questions may pertain to how your child communicates with you, how they move in the environment, how they complete self-help (or adaptive) skills like eating, toileting, or dressing, how they process sensory information, how they engage with other children, etc.

The evaluators will then score the formal questionnaires and make recommendations for ongoing therapy or additional evaluations. If your child qualifies for services, then the evaluators will write specific goals for your child based on what your family wants to target. This discussion and formal documentation is called the IFSP meeting.

Early intervention speech therapy services should start as soon as you have agreed upon your child’s goals and needs and have a signed IFSP!

For those in California, we are available to do evaluations online. This is a great option if your area has long waitlists. The earlier you start speech therapy, the quicker your child will progress!