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The need for communication sciences and disorders professionals who work with the birth-to-3 population is huge. You want to help, but it's not your area of expertise. Here's how to get the education you need.
EARLY INTERVENTION EXPERTISE
UNIVERSITY-BASED PROGRAMS
Independent certificate programs are designed for professionals from a variety of disciplines who want to improve, expand or update their early intervention knowledge and skills.
STATE PROGRAMS
States have varying requirements for early intervention providers, and often offer training programs to help providers meet those requirements.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSEWORK
Companies and organizations offer online, day-long or conferencebased continuing education programs. These professional development courses are often the most financially, geographically and logistically accessible to many SLPs and audiologists.
Working with infants, toddlers and their families was never part of my professional plan.
As a high school senior, I was a classroom assistant for children who were deaf and hard of hearing, sparking my interest in speechlanguage pathology and sign language. After I earned my master's in speech-language pathology, I began working with adults with acquired speech, language and swallowing disorders-and eventually returned to school five years later to become a sign language interpreter.
I worked for almost 20 years with teenagers, adults and their families as a speech-language pathologist in medical settings and as a sign language interpreter. As my career progressed, I recognized that one of my favorite parts of my job was being on an interdisciplinary team that provided educational resources, support and training to family members.
Shifting to early intervention, then, was not as foreign as it seemed initially because of the familycentered nature of working with infants and toddlers. So, after many years of splitting my time between two professions, I was ready to meld my skills and pursue a singular path: providing resources for families of young children who were deaf or hard of hearing and just beginning the process of early intervention.
I knew that my many years of experience with collaborative assessment, treatment, family education and advocacy would translate well with this new population-but I also knew that I needed further training and handson experiences to feel qualified to work in early intervention, particularly with respect to federal guidelines, evidence-based best practices and leadership skills.
But...