EARLY INTERVENTION SERVICES
CAP and CIP Under-3 Early Intervention Services
Cornerstone's early intervention programs, CAP and CIP, offer individualized early intervention services that include a multidisciplinary approach to meet your child's specific needs.
EARLY INTERVENTION PROGRAM
Special Features of Cornerstone's EI Programs
HIGHLY TRAINED STAFF
INDIVIDUALIZED RESEARCH-BASED CURRICULUM
STRONG FAMILY FOCUS
INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION
IN-HOME AND CLINICAL SETTING
OPPORTUNITIES FOR PEER ENGAGEMENT
IMPORTANCE OF EARLY INTERVENTION
Why Seek Services Early?
To enhance the development of infants/toddlers and to decrease the potential for developmental delay, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides for early intervention services for infants and toddlers under the age of 3. This is based on scientific evidence that indicates early intervention having a significant impact on a child’s ability to learn new skills and changing a child’s developmental path. Intervention at an early age is crucial due a baby’s brain being most adaptable during the first three years of development. Early intervention can assist with providing foundational skills to your child to assist their future success and ability to learn in school and life.
CORNERSTONE'S EARLY INTERVENTION PROGRAMS
Care By Professionals You Can Trust
CORNERSTONE INDIVIDUAL PROGRAM (CIP)
This program addresses a child’s global development. If a child is delayed in more than one area, they will have more than one discipline providing services for their child. The program addresses needs in gross motor, fine motor, cognition, speech, activities of daily living, and psycho-social development. Services are provided in a one-on-one therapist to child ratio. The therapy takes place either in the clinic or in the natural environment. Each child’s specialized needs are taken into consideration when determining where therapy would best take place. This program is for children birth to three years of age.
CORNERSTONE ABA PROGRAM (CAP)
Similar to our CIP program, CAP addresses the need's of your child and their overall global development. If your child exhibits delays in more than one area of development, through our interdisciplinary team we can address needs in the areas of gross motor, fine motor, cognition, speech, activities of daily living, and psycho-social development. Additionally, this program offers behavior services to address your child's adaptive behavior and social-emotional development. This program offers parent education sessions and supervision by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst to monitor your child's progress.
GROUP INFANT STIMULATION PROGRAM
Our group program is geared for pre-school children under three years of age. Parent participation is always welcomed but not required. The program meets on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings from 9-11:30 am. It is a global (whole child) program which addresses a child’s needs in gross motor, fine motor, cognition, speech, feeding, oral motor, activities of daily living, and psycho-social areas of development. Children enrolled in the program have individual goals written for each area of development. The program is provided in a one-to-three ratio, with one adult to every three children. Our program includes typical peers to promote modeling of age appropriate social skills and additionally provide opportunities for appropriate peer interaction. Children who are enrolled in the CAP program may participate within the larger social infant stimulation program with their one on one behavior therapist if deemed to be beneficial.
EARLY START DENVER MODEL
Early Start Denver Model
Our early intervention programs utilize an evidence-based treatment approach called The Early Start Denver Model. It was developed by Dr. Sally Rogers, a leading researcher in early childhood cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioral development at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute, and Dr. Geraldine Dawson, a developmental psychologist, autism researcher, and the Chief Science Officer of Autism Speaks. The Early Start Denver Model draws extensively from previous work in two well-known models for autism intervention: the Denver Model and Pivotal Response Training.
There are three main goals of treatment for young children with autism in the Early Start Denver Model:
Bringing the child into coordinated, interactive social relations for most of their waking hours, so that social attention, imitation and communication can be developed and learning through social experiences can occur.
Increasing the reward value of social engagement with others by choosing materials, activities, and routines that are enjoyable and interesting for children, by reading children’s cues and following children’s interests as we choose activities, and by developing play routines that add meaning and predictability for children.
Developing play activities into joint activity routines designed to build skills and “fill in” current learning deficits. The main skills that we focus on include teaching imitation, developing awareness of social interactions and reciprocity, teaching the power of communication, teaching a symbolic communication system, teaching more flexible, conventional and creative play with toys, and making the social world as understandable as the world of objects. Just as the typically developing toddler and preschooler spend virtually all their waking hours engaged in the social milieu and learning from it, the young child with autism needs to be drawn into the social milieu - a carefully prepared and planned milieu that the child can understand, predict, and participate in.
REFERENCES
Cohen, H., Amerine-Dickens, M., & Smith, T. (2006). Early Intensive Behavioral Treatment: Replication of the UCLA Model in a Community Setting. Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 2, 145-157.
Dawson, G., & Osterling, J. (1997). Early intervention in autism. In M. J. Guralnick (Ed.), The effectiveness of early intervention: Second generation research. (pp. 307-651). Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing Co.
Eikeseth, S., Smith, T., Jahr, E., & Eldevik, S. (2007). Outcome for children with autism who began intensive behavioral treatment between ages 4 and 7: A comparison controlled study. Behavior Modification, 31, 264-278.
Guralnick, M. J. (2017). Early intervention for children with intellectual disabilities: An update. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 30(2), 211-229.
Howard, J. S., Sparkman, C. R., Cohen, H. G., Green, G., Stanislaw, H. (2005). A comparison of behavior analytic and eclectic treatments for children with autism. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 26, 359-383.
Kelley, E., Naigles, L., & Fein, D. (2010). An in-depth examination of optimal outcome children with a history of autism spectrum disorders. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 4, 526-538.
McEachin, J.J., Smith, T., and Lovaas, O.I. (1993). Long-term outcome for children with autism who received early intensive behavioral treatment. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 97, 359-72.
Rogers, S.J. (1998). Empirically supported comprehensive treatments for young children with autism. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 27(2), 168-179.
Sallows, G. O. & Graupner, T. D. (2005). Intensive behavioral treatment for children with autism: Four-year outcome and predictors. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 110, 417-438.
Smith, C.M., Rogers, S.J., & Dawson, G. (2007). The Early Start Denver Model: A comprehensive early intervention approach for toddlers with autism. In J.S. Handleman & S.L. Harris (Eds). Preschool Education Programs for Children with Autism. TX: Pro-ed.
Vismara, L.A., & Rogers, S.J. (2008). A new focus for parent education: Bridging the gap between diagnosis and intensive early intervention services. Perspectives on Language Learning and Education, 15, 60-66.
Zachor, D. A., Ben-Itzchak, E., Rabinovich, A., & Lahat, E. (2007). Change in autism core symptoms with intervention. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 1, 304-317.