Developing an IFSP is very important to the success of the child in meeting their developmental goals. This plan will lay out what goals need to be met and each person’s role in helping the child achieve their goals. Familial involvement is probably the most important part of the plan as they are the ones that the child spends the most time with and the ones the child will trust the most. They need to follow the plan and be communicative with the other professionals involved in their child’s care in order for everyone to do what they need to do. Having a clear path to follow will allow each person to know exactly what they need to do and when. Having open communication with all involved parties will also allow for the plan to be updated or changed as needed.
Some challenges that might occur when creating and implementing an IFSP would be if not all involved parties believe that the same approach should be used to help the child reach their developmental goals. This could lead to one or more people not following the plan as they disagree with it. Another issue might be if the family is not as involved as they need to be in order for the child to succeed. If the teachers and other caregivers are following the plan but then when the child goes home, their family is not, progress will be significantly slower and might even be set back. The involvement of the family is critical to the success of the plan.
Early intervention programs have been proven to be effective in helping children under the age of 3 reach developmental milestones that can help to catch them up to their peers. In a study by Elbaum and Celimli-Aksoy, they categorized children by the type of developmental disability they had and measured their improvement after receiving early intervention treatment in five different developmental domains (2022). The researchers noted that these programs seem to be shifting to increase the family involvement as they have found that this greatly improves the child’s chances of reaching their milestones before they enter preschool. They also noted how important it is that these programs communicate with other professionals so the treatment strategies can be continued as needed for children once they do enter a preschool environment (Elbaum & Celimli-Aksoy, 2022).
