Did you know that you are the most important person in your child’s life? Research has shown that young children who have a strong attachment with an important adult (that’s you!) are most likely to grow up secure and happy. You know your child better than anyone else, so your input and participation in your child’s early intervention (EI) service plan is critical. In fact, you can greatly influence and support your child’s learning and development by working closely with your child’s EI providers. These resources are all about your role in your child’s services. They should give you some ideas to discuss with your child’s EI providers.
The Family’s Role in Early Intervention Services
This topical guide will introduce you to important books, videos, and information resources available from the EI Clearinghouse and other sources. Contact us via online form or by phone (1-877-275-3227) to request a resource listed below (or ask your local public librarian). Note that some videos may be viewed online, and journal titles will take you to the publisher’s homepage.
Table of Contents

EIC Resources
Books
Using real-life examples and case studies along with checklists, exercises, and other hands-on advice, the book covers a range of delays and disorders that include autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, sensory processing disorder, aggressive behavior, and motor-control problems.
This book is a step-by-step guide for families on how to navigate the early intervention process.
Effective early intervention doesn’t stop when the provider leaves the family’s home. Targeting 80 skills in 6 key developmental domains for children birth to three, this reader-friendly guide gives professionals dozens of ready-to-use ideas for helping families and caregivers embed learning opportunities in their everyday routines.
In a series of interviews with mothers of children with special needs, Kingston explores what it means to be a mother and how that translates into real-life experience, giving examples of good and bad practice when working with professionals.
This book is about digging deeper and looking closer at what it takes to have successful relationships with each and every family. The authors explore seven partnership concepts, brought to life through the words and perspectives of families and professionals themselves.
Developmental psychologist and educator Campito draws on her own experiences as a parent to personalize the experience of becoming an advocate for one’s child. She explains how parents can work with communities of care to meet their child’s needs.
With a focus on how families and professionals can collaborate effectively so that infants and toddlers learn, grow, and thrive, this book reflects research and best-practices in the field of early intervention. The book includes a chapter on assessment and planning outlining how parents and professionals can work together throughout the process.
Videos and Media

In this video, families of children with special needs share their stories to help other parents understand what to do when they find out that their child has a special need, how to find answers to their questions, how to advocate for their child, and how to focus on their child’s unique strengths.
This training series introduces the Floortime approach for helping children to master the basics of relating and communicating. The creators of the approach demonstrate techniques that both follow the child’s natural emotional interests and challenge the child toward greater mastery of the social, emotional, and intellectual capacities. Cases related to birth to three-year-olds can be watched for EI credit (3.25 hrs): Introduction: The DIR model (45:13); Case 8. Gary, 22 months (66:00); Case 10. Alex, 2 years (87:24)
In this video, four families discuss their journey of raising and caring for children who have progressive, life-limiting illnesses. Parents share their reflections on care assistants, medical staff, and embracing their children’s lives with courage and hope.
This DVD shows you how to establish trusting, caring relationships between early intervention specialists and families of infants and toddlers with hearing loss.
Organizations
The mission of C.I.T.Y. of Support is to create a dynamic community, both online and in person, that supports all families navigating the needs of their child in therapy, regardless of diagnosis.
Family Matters provides disability-related information, referrals, telephone consultation, parent trainings, a lending library, and more for families of students and adults with disabilities. Live and online conferences, workshops, and other events are available. Family Matters serves all Illinois counties except Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will.
Created by parents, professionals, and volunteers, FRCD seeks to improve services for all children with disabilities through parent training, special education rights seminars, and information assistance and support through telephone and mail requests. They also maintain an extensive list of Parent Support Groups
Articles
This article provides a brief summary and overview of family-centered philosophy and the position of the family in early intervention services.
A mother who is also an early interventionist shares the story of how she discovered that her son had autism. The article describes a model that helped parents of three toddlers with autism to promote joint attention.
Web Resources
This short article discusses three essential components of a home visit through the lens of a case story.
This list provides resources to help providers discuss difficult topics with parents. Web articles, books, journal articles, and organizations are listed.
Many parents feel nervous about parent-teacher conferences or other talks with their children’s teachers or caregivers. Here are some parent-tested hints to help you have good meetings with the people at your child’s program.
Linda bites her classmates. Nate’s rude talk upsets everybody. But the parents seem stunned when you tell them you would like to find ways to help their child get along better at school. Here are some suggestions that may help when parents say, “He doesn’t do that at home!”
The purpose of this revised position statement is to clarify the role of the service, Special Instruction, and its providers (referred to as “early intervention educators” in this paper) within the broader field of IDEA (2004) Part C early intervention (EI). In Illinois, Special Instruction is referred to as developmental therapy and provided by a developmental therapist.