Brianna Overview

Reason for Referral: Bri is not talking and having tantrums                          Age: 25 months  

Team: Mom (Maria), Dad (Ted), service coordinator (Keena), speech language pathologist (Susan), developmental therapist (Lynn), occupational therapist (Jennifer)

Meet Brianna!  

Brianna (who goes by Bri) is 25 months old and was referred to EI by her parents (Ted & Maria) because Bri was not talking.  Her parents have some concerns about recent behaviors that are challenging.

Bri is the first child for her parents, who also have a 3 -month-old son (Thomas).  Ted works during the day as an administrator at a social service agency. Maria is a nurse and has chosen to be a stay-at-home mom.  Maria shared her concerns about Bri with a friend, who is a speech therapist.  Maria is concerned because Bri has got quieter and stopped using the words she had been using consistently since the birth of Thomas.  Bri now mostly points and leads people to what she wants. Ted and Maria have a friend who is hearing impaired, prompting Maria to teach Bri baby signs.  Bri is picking the signs up quickly.

Maria’s friend told her about the Early Intervention program and gave her the contact information for the local Child & Family Connections office to request an evaluation for eligibility for Bri.  The friend also recommended asking about a Speech and Occupational Therapy evaluation because she was concerned that perhaps Bri was having some sensory processing issues due to her recent challenging behaviors.

A service coordinator met with Maria within 2 days of her initial phone call. After talking with Maria, the service coordinator arranged speech language, occupational, and global evaluations to determine eligibility for EI.  Both parents were present for the OT and DT evaluations, but Ted had to work when the speech evaluation was conducted.

Following evaluations, Bri was determined to have a 53 percent delay in expressive language development as tested by the speech pathologist. The global evaluation found a 35 percent delay in overall communication and that Bri was within normal limits for all other areas of development. An OT evaluation was completed and she was found to be within normal limits.  It was also determined that there were no sensory processing difficulties at this time after conversation and observation of her in her playtime routine.  Bri’s challenging behaviors were identified as increasing when she was having difficulty getting her meaning across due to her language delays.  Maria is the only family member using sign language with Bri and does not report many behavioral concerns.  

Meeting Agenda:

• Introductions
• Family Update
• Review of evaluation and assessment strengths and areas of concern
• Child Outcome Measures determination
• Review and clarification of family concerns/priorities
• Functional IFSP outcomes and strategies development
• Service plan
• Provider selection

While viewing this video, please consider these questions:

• How is this different/similar to your experiences?

• What things did you see or hear that you:

Liked?                                                Disliked?

• What is the family’s involvement and participation like?

• How would you describe the team dynamics?

Levels of Development

What information did you learn regarding Bri’s skills (consider communication, cognitive development, self help/adaptive, motor development - both fine and gross, social emotional development)?

Child Outcomes

Use the decision tree to complete the child outcome measures:

_____ Children have positive social/emotional skills (including positive social relationships

_____ Children acquire and use knowledge and skills (including early language/communication)

_____ Children use appropriate behaviors to meet needs

Family Centered Functional Outcomes (see IFSP outcome page for reference)

When developing strategies, think of some of the routines that Bri’s family has and identify strategies around those routines.

Outcome #1:

Strategies:

Outcome #2:

Service Plan

What resources is the family already accessing?

What needs to be considered when deciding on who, what, where, how often, and the duration of resources that might help this family reach these outcomes?

What did your team come up with as a service plan (Resource type, where, how often, duration)?

What else could have been discussed at this meeting? Did you learn anything else about the family?