Anyone have an IFSP?

[rosesandpetals]

We are meeting with our intervention team on Thursday to write out DD's IFSP. They have all ready done their evals. They said at the last meeting they wanted us to have goals to put down for her to work toward. I've never done one of these and this is all a lot different from the parent side of things.

She is getting EI for two main things. 1) her hearing loss. She will be getting services related to speech pathology, communication, occupational therapy, stuff to help with that. and 2) she has some social issues. These could be tied in with the hearing loss so services will likely overlap but there are other concerns. She has extreme separation anxiety, she is very afraid of other adults (besides DH and I). She rarely interacts with other children and mostly stays clinging to me or DH or by herself, just watching if we aren't there. She doesn't recognize people she should (MIL, friends who come over frequently, neighbors, etc). We've discussed ASD, selective mutism, and a few other things. Her behavior is completely age appropriate when she is alone with DH or I, so it seems to be anxiety/fear, which they will work on through playgroups with kids run by a psychologist, hopefully among other things. (And when I say she's afraid of other adults, I am putting it mildly.)

Should the goals be similar to IEP goals?

Should we have mostly long term goals that we plan to reach over time or goals that are attainable in the short term? I think the IFSP needs to be updated yearly but she will age out of EI in January so it will be converted into an IEP at that point, anyway. So will they just transfer the goals or should we make them things we think can be accomplished by January? I'm not sure if we will need to go through a whole new process to get an official IEP in January or not. So any thoughts/info is appreciated.

TIA.

[NandaB]

We were told we would revisit every 6 months, but it may be different since w is a baby (we only had our initial meeting so far). I would just come with some ideas of the types of things you want her to work on. They can do the actual goal writing at the meeting. I would imagine the structure is similar to an iep, but dont know for sure

[NandaB]

Check out the special needs board on the other proboards (I can link if you want) I think there are people there who have ifsp experience.

[usm]

I usually have goals in my mind and let them put it in the language they want. Goals should be measurable so I let them decide what is an appropriate measurement. Every time we have written goals it has been an open, ongoing conversation.

DS2's goals are things related to eating, like will eat 5 bites of solid food 3x a day for 1 week. DS2 will identify 5 body parts consistently 5 days a week. These are similar examples to his goals. Just know what you want as a general idea and they will help you in coming up with measurable, achievable goals.

[Kcthepouchh8r]

The team set a lot of goals based on where she was at developmentally at that point and what would be reasonable to hit in six months time. They also asked my input of goals that would help at home. Like your dd she was fine at home but social skills with others was a huge issue so we did a lot of therapy in the community. Ots and slp's came to the park when weather permitted for therapy, we would take trips to stores for practice and she did a few social groups. It helped her immensely. She's still not a social butterfly by any stretch but she stopped crying when other people outside her immediate family and grandparents talked to her and she began observing/mimicking peers and even joining in with preferred play. GL!

[andrewsgal]

Mar 25, 2015 5:51:27 GMT -5 Kcthepouchh8r said:

The team set a lot of goals based on where she was at developmentally at that point and what would be reasonable to hit in six months time. They also asked my input of goals that would help at home. Like your dd she was fine at home but social skills with others was a huge issue so we did a lot of therapy in the community. Ots and slp's came to the park when weather permitted for therapy, we would take trips to stores for practice and she did a few social groups. It helped her immensely. She's still not a social butterfly by any stretch but she stopped crying when other people outside her immediate family and grandparents talked to her and she began observing/mimicking peers and even joining in with preferred play. GL!

I am a huge fan of therapist going into the community with kids this is a great point.

[rosesandpetals]

Mar 25, 2015 5:51:27 GMT -5 Kcthepouchh8r said:

The team set a lot of goals based on where she was at developmentally at that point and what would be reasonable to hit in six months time. They also asked my input of goals that would help at home. Like your dd she was fine at home but social skills with others was a huge issue so we did a lot of therapy in the community. Ots and slp's came to the park when weather permitted for therapy, we would take trips to stores for practice and she did a few social groups. It helped her immensely. She's still not a social butterfly by any stretch but she stopped crying when other people outside her immediate family and grandparents talked to her and she began observing/mimicking peers and even joining in with preferred play. GL!

How did you get an ASD dx for your DD? If you don't mind me asking. I have a sister who is on the spectrum (albeit HFing) and 3 cousins who are more severe, plus I've had (admittedly HFing) students with ASD so I feel like I know a good amount about it and for some reason it just keeps sticking in my brain. It's the thing I keep coming back to. When Lily was doing her evals, a lot of the stuff she was way advanced on. My experience/instinct/whatever is telling me that when a kid is really advanced in one area and has significant problems/delays in another, there is usually an over-arching issue. She could just have problems with social anxiety but I feel like maybe asperger's fits better. But I know a lot of professionals are hesitant to give that dx before 3. We talked about taking her to a dev pedi but her hearing issues pushed us into EI before we had a chance to research it more.

[rosesandpetals]

Mar 25, 2015 6:34:34 GMT -5 andrewsgal said:

Mar 25, 2015 5:51:27 GMT -5 Kcthepouchh8r said:

The team set a lot of goals based on where she was at developmentally at that point and what would be reasonable to hit in six months time. They also asked my input of goals that would help at home. Like your dd she was fine at home but social skills with others was a huge issue so we did a lot of therapy in the community. Ots and slp's came to the park when weather permitted for therapy, we would take trips to stores for practice and she did a few social groups. It helped her immensely. She's still not a social butterfly by any stretch but she stopped crying when other people outside her immediate family and grandparents talked to her and she began observing/mimicking peers and even joining in with preferred play. GL!

I am a huge fan of therapist going into the community with kids this is a great point.

This would be really great, especially since it is getting warm now. She'd have like 9 months of getting to do stuff. I hope they're willing to do that. I'm also hoping the playgroup helps. Hopefully then they can see some of the stuff I'm trying to describe.

[Kcthepouchh8r]

Mar 25, 2015 14:33:05 GMT -5 rosesandpetals said:

Mar 25, 2015 5:51:27 GMT -5 Kcthepouchh8r said:

The team set a lot of goals based on where she was at developmentally at that point and what would be reasonable to hit in six months time. They also asked my input of goals that would help at home. Like your dd she was fine at home but social skills with others was a huge issue so we did a lot of therapy in the community. Ots and slp's came to the park when weather permitted for therapy, we would take trips to stores for practice and she did a few social groups. It helped her immensely. She's still not a social butterfly by any stretch but she stopped crying when other people outside her immediate family and grandparents talked to her and she began observing/mimicking peers and even joining in with preferred play. GL!

How did you get an ASD dx for your DD? If you don't mind me asking. I have a sister who is on the spectrum (albeit HFing) and 3 cousins who are more severe, plus I've had (admittedly HFing) students with ASD so I feel like I know a good amount about it and for some reason it just keeps sticking in my brain. It's the thing I keep coming back to. When Lily was doing her evals, a lot of the stuff she was way advanced on. My experience/instinct/whatever is telling me that when a kid is really advanced in one area and has significant problems/delays in another, there is usually an over-arching issue. She could just have problems with social anxiety but I feel like maybe asperger's fits better. But I know a lot of professionals are hesitant to give that dx before 3. We talked about taking her to a dev pedi but her hearing issues pushed us into EI before we had a chance to research it more.

I don't mind sharing at all. I went to a developmental pediatrician. She was evaluated at two and they said no to autism but she grew into symptoms and was diagnosed at three. Since you have a family history I would definitely ask for a referral. Even if you don't get a dx right away it's an important person on your team for recommendations for therapy as well as classroom placement for when she transitions out of EI.

Dd also has very asynchronous development--she's four but socially/emotionally is two, language skills about a three year old level, is age appropriate with adaptive/gross motor, slightly advanced fine motor, academically on a 6 year old level.