Here's How to Do Early Intervention for Speech and Language: Empowering Parents

Here's How to Do Early Intervention for Speech and Language: Empowering Parents is an essential guide to early intervention for treatment of autism and related disorders. In clear, direct language, it helps early interventionists jump-start the communication process, strengthen parent confidence, and promote healthier parent-child relationships. It provides key strategies for collaborating with parents in stress, as well as how to foster effective relationships with allied professionals. With its far-reaching scope, this book provides foundational activities useful to non-SLPs working with caregivers, including infant education and mental health programs, applied behavioral analysis (ABA) agencies, and students working toward earning their BCBA licenses.This how-to resource provides specific techniques and guidelines designed to: Help therapists provide specific guidelines for parents new to early intervention Explore how parent-child interaction is impacted by a delay or disorder in communication skills Review the grieving process and how it relates to parents of children with developmental delays and disorders, including autism Review and blend developmental and behavioral theories as applicable to early intervention Discuss the application of evidenced based practices into everyday treatment Develop parental sense of competency by building effective interaction Provide specific strategies for parents and therapists to develop functional communication through direct and indirect play, gestures, modified signs, and sound imitation Review effective data tracking and methods of recording progress Help therapists work with families as they transition out of the early intervention system As a clinician with more than 35 years of experience, Karyn Lewis Searcy, M. A., is uniquely qualified to write on the subject of early intervention for children with autism and related disorders.She has co-authored several academic journal articles on collaboration and intervention techniques for infants and young children with autism and related disorders, is an instructor at California State University San Marcos, and nationally conducts trainings on the topics covered in Here's How to Do Early Intervention for Speech and Language: Empowering Parents. Included is a DVD containing video interviews with parents describing their journey through the early intervention process, and the author's description of specific therapy targets effective for children under the age of 24 months. A CD with reproducible worksheets for treatment and system tracking is also provided, as well as handouts to share with parents and allied staff.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Introduction Acknowledgments Dedication Prologue PART I: Review of Early Intervention Chapter 1 Review of Early Intervention: Services and Practices Chapter 2 Connecting Families to Referral Sources Chapter 3 Parent-Child Interaction Chapter 4 Supporting Families During Difficult Times Chapter 5 Treatment Models Chapter 6 Collaboration and Reflective Practice in Early Intervention PART II: Treatment Targets Chapter 7 Fundamentals of All Interaction: Engagement and Play Chapter 8 Modified Sign and Gestures Chapter 9 Sound Imitation Play Chapter 10 Group Therapy in Early Intervention PART III: Follow-Up Chapter 11 Data Collection and Report Writing: Keeping it Simple Chapter 12 Transitioning from Early Intervention Index

About the Author :
Karyn Lewis Searcy, M.A., CCC has maintained a clinical focus on parent-child relationships and communication disorders for more than 35 years. The clinical director and founder of the Crimson Center for Speech & Language in San Diego, she was instrumental in developing the non-profit Crimson Treatment & Research Center, which fosters community outreach through clinical collaboration in an effort to provide programs for families struggling to obtain funding. A past board member of the San Diego Chapter of the Autism Society of America, she was also the 2010 recipient of their Health Hero Award. A national speaker on collaboration and parent-child interaction as they relate to communication disorders, Karyn has co-authored journal articles and book chapters about those processes and served as co-investigator on an NIMH grant for the SoCalifornia BRIDGE Collaborative from 2009-2011. She currently serves as a board member for the California Infant Development Association (IDA) and is a professional advisory board member for Down Syndrome Action in San Diego.