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Information on Therapy Services

AzEIP administers the IDEA Part C system in the state of Arizona. There are services described on this page that may be financially covered by AzEIP when assessed as educationally necessary by an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) team and delivered by a provider who is contracted with AzEIP to serve the area where your family lives.  If you have questions about any of the services explained below, your IFSP team is the best resource for information.

Physical Therapy

A physical therapist uses a combination of family coaching, exercise, stretches, hands-on techniques, and equipment to restore function, teach new skills, or relieve pain.These services include: 

  • Screening, evaluation, and assessment of children to identify movement dysfunction 
  • Obtaining, interpreting, and integrating information appropriate to program planning to prevent, alleviate, or compensate for movement dysfunction and related functional problems 
  • Providing services or treatment to prevent, alleviate, or compensate for, movement dysfunction and related functional problems.

Physical therapy services are provided by AzEIP at no cost to the family when assessed by the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) team as necessary to achieve the outcomes on the child’s IFSP and when provided by an AzEIP-contracted Team-Based Early Intervention Services (TBEIS) provider.

Occupational Therapy

An occupational therapist addresses the functional needs of an infant or toddler with a disability related to adaptive development, adaptive behavior, and play, and sensory, motor, and postural development. These services are designed to improve the child's functional ability to perform tasks in home, school, and community settings, and include:

  • Identification, assessment, and intervention 
  • Adaptation of the environment, and selection, design, and fabrication of assistive and orthotic devices to facilitate development and promote the acquisition of functional skills and prevention or minimization of the impact of initial or future impairment, delay in development, or loss of functional ability.

Occupational therapy services are provided by AzEIP at no cost to the family when assessed by the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) team as necessary to achieve the outcomes on the child’s IFSP and when provided by an AzEIP-contracted Team-Based Early Intervention Services (TBEIS) provider.

Speech-Language Therapy

A Speech language pathologist provides services that include:

  • Identification of children with communication or language disorders and delays in development of communication skills, including the diagnosis and appraisal of specific disorders and delays in those skills 
  • Referral for medical or other professional services necessary for the habilitation or rehabilitation of children with communication or language disorders and delays in development of communication skills 
  • Provision of services for the habilitation, rehabilitation, or prevention of communication or language disorders and delays in development of communication skills.

Speech and language pathology services are provided by AzEIP at no cost to the family when assessed by the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) team as necessary to achieve the outcomes on the child’s IFSP and when provided by an AzEIP-contracted Team-Based Early Intervention Services (TBEIS) provider.

Applied Behavioral Analysis

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a scientific approach to understanding behavior. ABA refers to a set of principles that focus on how behaviors change or are affected by the environment, as well as how learning takes place. ABA requires the implementation of established principles of learning, behavioral strategies, and environmental modifications to improve and teach new behaviors.

Applied Behavior Analysis is a behavioral health service, which is not a required service under IDEA Part C. AzEIP providers may incorporate ABA principles into service delivery, but are not acting as registered or certified behavioral health providers. ABA is a covered Medicaid service when medically necessary and covered by many private insurance plans as part of their behavioral health benefits.

Technology Services and Language Acquisition Resources

Sensory Aids

  • Behind the Ear Hearing Aids: A hearing aid is a small electronic device worn in or behind the ear that amplifies sound, allowing people with hearing in the mild to profound range to better hear and understand speech.
  • Cochlear and Brainstem Implants: A surgically implanted electronic device that helps people with hearing in the severe to profound range perceive sound by directly stimulating the auditory nerve in the inner ear, bypassing damaged hair cells, and essentially creating a new pathway for sound to reach the brain.
  • Bone Anchored Hearing Aids (BAHA): A hearing device that transmits sound vibrations to the inner ear through the skull, rather than through the ear canal.
  • Other Assistive Devices:
    • Assistive listening devices (ALDS), such as frequency modulated (FM) and digital modulated (DM) devices that, when coupled with sensory aids, reduce the effects of reverberation, background noise, and distance.
    • Alerting devices, such as lights can be linked electronically to doorbells, telephones, alarm clocks and alarm systems. Individuals can use these devices for notification of natural disasters as well. Vibrating beepers and alarms can also be linked electronically to doorbells, telephones, alarm clocks and alarm systems.
    • Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC): means all of the ways that someone can communicate besides talking. People of all ages can use AAC if they have trouble with speech and language skills. “Augmentative” means to add to someone’s speech. “Alternative” means to be used instead of speech. There are lots of different types of AAC:
      • No-tech and low-tech options include:
        • gestures and facial expressions,
        • writing,
        • drawing,
        • spelling words by pointing to letters, and
        • pointing to photos, pictures, or written words.
      • High-tech options include:
        • using an app on an iPad or tablet to communicate and
        • using a computer with a “voice," sometimes called a speech-generating device.

Language and Communication Options

  • American Sign Language (ASL): ASL is a visual language with its own unique set of rules and syntax. The shape, placement and movement of the hands, as well as facial expressions and body movement, all play an important role in conveying information. It does not follow the grammatical rules of spoken or written English.
  • Listening and Spoken Language: The Listening and Spoken Language approach seeks to maximize learning through listening. It requires children to have the best possible access to sound through the use of hearing technology, such as hearing aids, bone conduction devices or cochlear implants. The focus of this option is to use auditory information to acquire speech and spoken language. It is based on the assumption that most children with hearing differences can be taught to listen and speak.
  • Manually Coded English: Manually Coded English (MCE) is the term used to encompass a variety of visual communication methods expressed through the hands, which attempt to show the English language visually. Unlike native signed languages, which have developed naturally in Deaf communities and have their own grammar, the different forms of Manually Coded English were artificially created and generally follow the grammar of English.
  • Cued Speech provides a visual representation of speech sounds by using a variety of hand shapes near or around the mouth, chin and neck as one is speaking. Cued speech is used with spoken language and encourages phonemic development of a language.
  • Speech Reading: Speech-reading (or “lip reading”) is the ability to understand speech by carefully watching a person's lip patterns and the movement of their tongue and face.

Audiology, Assistive Technology, and Family Training are all services that may be provided under IDEA Part C when an IFSP team has assessed that they are educationally necessary to meet IFSP outcomes and are provided by an AzEIP-contracted provider. Some of the Technology Services and Language Acquisition Resources highlighted here may be covered in whole or in part by AzEIP. If you are interested in learning more about them, please speak with your IFSP team.

References

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