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Early Intervention: Giving Children the Support They Need to Thrive · Flourish- A Prisma Health Podcast

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  Scott Webb: Reaching developmental milestones is important for our kiddos,
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  and my guest today is here to tell us why early intervention is in the best
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  interest of many kids and families.
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  I'm joined today by Dr.
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  Sarah Lilly.
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  She's a physician with developmental behavioral Pediatrics at Prisma Health.
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  I.
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  Scott Webb (Host): This is Flourish, the podcast brought to you by Prisma Health.
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  I'm Scott Webb.
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  Scott Webb: Dr.
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  Lily, it's so nice to have you here today.
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  We're gonna talk early intervention so that we can give our children
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  the support they need to thrive.
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  And it makes me wonder, like, what does that mean?
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  Can you define that for us?
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  What does early intervention mean?
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  Dr. Sara Lilly:
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  early intervention refers to services for young children.
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  So we're talking like infants and toddlers.
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  Typically birth to age three, who, may benefit from, some extra help related
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  to, you know, developmental delays or for whatever reason may be at-risk.
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  Scott Webb: Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
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  I was thinking, you know, my kids are older, as I was telling
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  you, but I was thinking like, you know, those milestones, right?
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  And especially when it's your first child and everything seems like it's
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  worth talking to a doctor about.
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  Is That, is that where we're at with this?
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  Which is basically like, you know, maybe we feel like they're not hitting
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  those milestones, or that's our first child And we worry about everything.
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  Is there a dumb question per se, or is it good to ask all questions?
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  Dr. Sara Lilly:
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  Oh man.
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  Yeah, as a parent myself, I can definitely say there are no dumb
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  questions being on both sides of this.
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  I definitely can relate to that sentiment though because it's all different
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  when you're on the parenting side.
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  And I think one of the things that pediatricians truly love to do is
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  help guide parents and families.
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  So yeah, these early intervention services we're talking about are,
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  the ones that we're really dedicating those first three years of life.
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  For kids that might be at-risk.
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  And, , when I say services, like if you're not necessarily, you know, familiar
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  with what that might mean, Those are gonna be things like speech therapy,
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  physical therapy, occupational therapy.
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  And in general for kids this age, we're really trying to
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  like deliver services and.
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  Comfortable natural environment, So, it might be like home or daycare.
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  , And the focus is always gonna be on the child And the, family and specifically
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  sort of what their goals are.
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  And then also like, yes, that buzzword, like the milestones and
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  kind of where that child should be, will always be our guide on what
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  services, you know, should be offered.
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  Scott Webb: Yeah, I was just thinking back, you know, just the walking,
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  the talking, you know, all of that stuff, hopefully being on time.
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  And you give us a sense there why early intervention is so important.
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  So maybe you can talk a little bit more about like how it
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  aids in child development,
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  Dr. Sara Lilly:
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  Right.
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  So the, reason we focus so much on, intervening early is that those first
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  three years of life are really the.
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  Biggest period of rapid brain development And what we call neuroplasticity.
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  So when the brain is just constantly reshaping and reforming connections,
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  for the best possible outcomes.
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  So, you know, when we look at evidence first, what we can do to help a child
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  who is delayed, the earlier that we provide support, the better long-term
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  outcomes are gonna be for communication.
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  Behavior, social development, learning mindset, all of those things.
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  So you know how we're gonna kind of aid the child with these intervention
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  services to hope to build those kind of major foundational skills.
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  So how to communicate.
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  How to navigate your environment, whether that be, ambulatory or
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  with some other type of equipment.
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  , How we do things like interact with other's.
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  All those things are, being rapidly taught in the first several years of life, And
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  so is the best time to kind of jump on board with extra help if it's needed.
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  Scott Webb: Yeah.
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  It's like Those are some of my favorite years when my kids were that age, and now
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  that they're older, they're 18 and 23, it's like, you know, one's into adulthood
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  and he has a job now, And the other one's getting ready to go to college.
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  And it's a whole other thing at the other end of the spectrum.
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  But we're focusing today on those first couple of years.
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  So then let's talk about some of the conditions that really benefit
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  the most from early intervention.
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  Dr. Sara Lilly:
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  Right.
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  It's a good question.
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  So I think, you know, sort of from a really broad standpoint, the child
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  that's gonna benefit is any child.
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  With a developmental delay or a specific risk.
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  Now the kind of more specific examples of kids that are gonna benefit are ones
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  that have been identified by someone.
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  Likely the pediatrician, is in this role picking up on early delays.
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  But also sometimes this comes from someone else.
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  It might be a daycare provider, or it could be someone that works
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  with the child in another way.
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  But we're talking about kids with.
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  Speech language delays, motor delays, and motor is just the
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  word we use for movement, right?
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  So whether that's the fine movements of the hands or the bigger
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  movements of the body, like walking, social communication differences.
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  So big thing in this age group is always looking out for how kids are
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  kind of navigating their environment and socially communicating, which can
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  sometimes give us, some insight for sure into maybe things like autism
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  spectrum disorder come onto the table.
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  Kids with, certainly genetic syndromes, You know, or have
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  been maybe born premature.
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  All of those kids can likely benefit from early intervention.
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  Scott Webb: Yeah, a lot of kiddos can benefit parents too, of course.
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  And it makes me wonder then, like, who should we reach out to?
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  We referenced pediatricians earlier, and I love pediatricians.
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  My 18-year-old now goes to an adult doctor, and I, going
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  Dr. Sara Lilly:
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  Oh
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  Scott Webb: the pediatrician's office with her.
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  But is it something your regular physician, family physician,
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  pediatrician can help with?
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  Or is there someone else to speak to?
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  Dr. Sara Lilly:
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  Absolutely.
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  I think that's, a great place to get started is just if there are, any
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  concerns that you either have yourself or are bought up by someone else.
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  I think scheduling a visit with your pediatrician or like you said,
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  family physician to kind of get.
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  idea of where the child currently is.
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  There's a lot of different tools that we use to kind of identify early
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  delays, , and can really just kind of have a conversation work through specific
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  milestones, because while we have those milestones that's, you know, what we're
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  expecting to a large amount of children to do by a certain age, but there's always.
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  But, or, or if so for instance, you know, premature children within the,,
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  first couple of years, they're kind of catching up And so there can be some
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  different things to look for there.
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  So, uh, yeah, the guidance of your pediatrician or family physician can be
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  very helpful, another thing that I think probably a lot of families don't know is
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  for some reason, , that's not attainable at the moment, or, you still just have us.
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  Specific concern, and you'd still like your child evaluated
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  for early intervention.
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  It is also a self-referral process.
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  So That is something that you can even refer yourself to have, another individual
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  take a look and hopefully give some peace of mind or get a plan in action to help
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  you feel better about what's going on.
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  Scott Webb: That's great, and I like that you mentioned, you know, these
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  are milestones, the, the averages if you will, for most of the kids.
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  But if kids were premature or they're a little bit behind,
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  they're probably gonna be fine.
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  But it's good to reach out.
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  Good to, you know, this early intervention.
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  And you know, when we think about early intervention, and maybe we missed
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  that window or we didn't recognize the signs or whatever happened, right?
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  Even the best parents might have missed this, that, or whatever.
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  it, is it ever too late?
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  I guess I'm asking for quote unquote early intervention, like,
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  can we do that with an older child?
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  Dr. Sara Lilly:
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  Really early intervention is gonna be our kids that are birth to three.
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  But I think to go back, I would say it's really never too late
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  to seek support or services.
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  to your earlier question of like, are there bad questions about this?
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  And the answer's definitely no.
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  Anytime there's a concern.
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  It's one of the things that pediatricians really love to
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  do is talk through this stuff.
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  So yeah.
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  But early intervention definitely is, focused on kids birth to three.
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  But after three we've got school-based services.
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  Some of those services transition just under another organization,
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  but continue to be provided.
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  So, really throughout all of.
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  Early childhood years.
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  So I'm talking like, You know, birth to even, six years old.
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  There are options for sure, And then, you know, therapy services can continue
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  even beyond that, but that early window is sort of what we're talking about
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  specifically with early intervention.
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  Scott Webb: Yeah, right.
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  There are through the lens today of early intervention.
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  It's zero to three, but it's not like when There are four,
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  you go, well, he's a goner.
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  You know, we,
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  Dr. Sara Lilly:
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  No help for
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  Scott Webb: yeah, we missed the window.
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  What are, what are we gonna do?
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  Maybe the next one.
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  Right.
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  Uh, this has been great to have you on and, learn a little bit more about this
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  early intervention And the programs, what's available to families, kiddos,
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  you know, everybody really just give you a chance here at the end.
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  Final thoughts, takeaways, when you think about this as we're framing
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  this zero to three early intervention, what do you most want parents to know?
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  Dr. Sara Lilly:
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  I think, just really trust your instincts as a parent.
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  You know, if something feels off, it's always okay to
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  ask or seek, evaluation and.
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  Just knowing in the back of our mind that, you know, the earlier we act,
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  the more we can support a child's development and support families.
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  Scott Webb: Right.
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  There's no bad questions.
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  Pediatricians are the best.
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  You heard me say it.
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  It's true.
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  It just is.
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  So, appreciate your time today, your expertise.
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  Thank you so much.
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  Dr. Sara Lilly:
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  Absolutely happy to be here.
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  I.
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  Host: For more information and other podcasts just like this one,
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  Scott Webb: Head on over to prisma health.org/podcast.
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  Host: This has been Flourish, a podcast brought to you by Prisma Health.
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  I'm Scott Webb.
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  Stay well.