Early Childhood

• Multidisciplinary evaluation of social, communication, and learning skills
• Individual or group multidisciplinary social and communication therapy
• Parent-child interaction training
• Outreach consultation

The STAR Early Childhood Program is not a program developed to replace a child's current program, but to enhance it with intervention based on the parent priorities and consistency across all providers and caregivers. The program focuses on keeping the child engaged, working toward higher level skills, for at least 25 hours a week. This engagement can be during home routines, community routines, and in structured programs. There is also a focus on social-communication in the STAR Early Childhood Program.

The program consists of two initial meetings, followed by individualized, follow-up intervention discussed and developed at the program planning meeting. The two initial meetings are:

• Early Childhood Assessment for Program Planning: The child is assessed by a psychologist, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist, and an educational specialist. This is a two hour assessment.
• Early Childhood Program Planning: The child does not attend this meeting, but the parents, caregivers and providers attend and develop teaching plans based on the parent's top three priorities; the COMPASS approach is used to look at the challenges of the child and environment and the strengths of the child and the environment in relation to learning the skills in the teaching plans; follow-up intervention is discussed and developed.

Below are examples of the services children have received based on their individual needs and parent priorities.

Tommy:

Early Childhood Evaluation and Program Planning
Peer social group
Occupational Therapy
Speech and Language Therapy
Behavior Management Evaluation
Behavior Management Parent Group

Matt:

Early Childhood Evaluation and Program Planning
Home consultation
Occupational Therapy
Speech and Language Therapy
Early Childhood Group

Leslie:

Early Childhood Evaluation and Program Planning
Early Childhood Group
IEP Consultation
Behavior Management Evaluation
Behavior Management Family Therapy
Behavior Management Parent Group

Jimmy:

Early Childhood Evaluation and Program Planning
IEP Consultation
Biomedical Consultation
Occupational Therapy
Speech and Language Therapy
Behavior Management Evaluation