Early Intervention
RHD’s Early Intervention delivers home and community-based services to parents and caregivers of infants, toddlers and preschoolers identified as having an early childhood medical diagnosis or developmental delay. Early Intervention offers Special Instruction, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Social Work and Nutrition services. Services are offered to families of varying socioeconomic backgrounds. In-person and phone interpretation services are offered to non-English speaking families when needed. Early Intervention supports more than 200 children.
Treatment Methods
Early Intervention is a participation-based model, which partners with families to deliver intervention strategies that may be implemented within their naturally occurring daily routines. Parents/caregivers are also provided resources to support them in removing barriers to parenting and becoming integrated within their community. An initial Multi-Disciplinary Evaluation will determine if a child is eligible for services. The Early Intervention team develops a plan based on the family’s needs, and then identifies the most appropriate Early Interventionist to work with the family. Services are then delivered according to the prescribed frequency of service, which could range from twice weekly to monthly visits. The Early Intervention team will then meet quarterly to discuss the child’s progress. Annually, the team will reconvene to reassess the child and determine eligibility of services.
Duration of Treatment
Duration varies depending on need. The prescribed duration of treatment will occur until the day before the child’s third birthday for the early intervention infant and toddler services, or until the child’s fifth birthday for preschoolers, or by age six if the child is not yet entered into a school-age program for pre-school early intervention services.
Admission Criteria
A child is found eligible by having either a specified diagnosis that may cause a probable delay in development, or by demonstrating a 1.5 standard deviation score below the mean in at least one of the five developmental domains according to an approved standardized assessment or by way of Informed Clinical Opinion.
Referral Sources
Infant and Toddler early intervention referrals are received from an early intervention program database managed by the Department of Behavioral Health and disAbilities Services (also known as DBHIDS Referral Unit) and also from Elwyn Seeds Early Intervention Program. Referrals are reported to the Early Intervention Referral Intake Units by way of pediatricians, community service providers and directly from parents and/or caregivers.
Contact DBHIDS Referral Unit at: 215-685-4646
Contact Elwyn Seeds Early Intervention at: 215-921-7164
