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Mission and Key Principles

Arizona supports the following Mission and Key Principles for Providing Early Intervention Services.  To view short presentations and videos to guide early intervention practices with children and families use the following link: 7 key principles of early intervention. To explain each principle, the WA Systems Improvement Project Team developed a series of videos depicting each of the Key principles1.  We’ve provided links to each video below, although the content of the information applies to the work we do, on one or two occasions you may hear a reference to terms used in Washington which are different from the terms used in Arizona.

Mission

Early intervention builds upon and provides supports and resources to assist family members and caregivers to enhance children’s learning and development through everyday learning opportunities.

Key Principles

  1. Infants and toddlers learn best through everyday experiences and interactions with familiar people in familiar contexts.
  2. All families, with the necessary supports and resources, can enhance their children’s learning and development.
  3. The primary role of a service provider in early intervention is to work with and support family members and caregivers in children’s lives.
  4. The early intervention process, from initial contacts through transition, must be dynamic and individualized to reflect the child’s and family members’ preferences, learning styles and cultural beliefs.
  5. IFSP outcomes must be functional and based on children’s and families’ needs and family-identified priorities.
  6. The family’s priorities, needs and interests are addressed most appropriately by a primary provider who represents and receives team and community support.
  7. Interventions with young children and family members must be based on explicit principles, validated practices, best available research, and relevant laws and regulations.

Arizona’s team-based early intervention services implement the above mission and principles, which are recommended by the national technical assistance centers funded by the United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and which are also implemented by over twenty states.

In team-based early intervention services, a team lead is the primary partner with the family in the provision of services. The team lead has expertise relevant to the child’s needs and the outcomes on the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). The team lead’s focus is on collaborative coaching of families as the primary intervention strategy to implement jointly-developed, functional IFSP outcomes in natural environments with ongoing coaching and support from other team members. The team lead does not meet all the service needs of the child. The other team supports the team lead, through regular team meetings and joint visits with the family. Families participate in the team meetings through in-person attendance, calling-in to the meeting, or asking the team lead to share their questions/concerns.

Additional early intervention resources are found at the following web links:

 1 WA Systems Improvement Project Team. (2011). IDEA Part C on-line training modules. Modified from http://www.nectac.org/wamodules/wamodules.asp (link is external). View complete information on the credits, citation and permission to use.

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