Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) Essay Example

An IFSP is known as an Individualized Family Service Plan, and this helps the development of a child until they are at age 3. This plan helps the family along with their child with services of early intervention. With early intervention, the key component is to have it occur in a setting that is natural for the child. This typically would happen at home, but it should be a place where the child and family are comfortable. It lays out what services the baby or toddler of that certain family should receive that the team that works with the family can help provide more advice to help and guide them to programs that benefit their child. A main principle for the IFSP is to focus on what the family needs to best support the child. “IFSP focuses on the child and family and the services that a family needs to help them enhance the development of their child. The IEP focuses on the educational needs of the child,” (Pacer.org, 2011). The IFSP is the plan that helps support the boost of a child’s development until they reach age three. This plan holds an assessment for the needs of the child and works with the needs and concerns of the family as well. The IEP, known as the Individual Education Program, is a plan for services of special education for children when they are 3- years old until they are 21- years old. This is for the child’s educational performance and participation. The team that is included in this plan is not very overwhelming. It consists of the parents, other family members, and members from outside the family, if requested. There is a person who is a service coordinator, they put the IFSP into action. This person plans a meeting after reaching out to other specialists whom they think should be involved in this child’s plan. There will be a person or group of professionals that are directly involved in evaluations or assessments of the child’s needs. Lastly, a professional may be there to talk about providing early intervention services for the child and or family. 

Depending on the needs of the child, the team might include some specialists such as a therapist, social worker, medical practitioner, and also a child development specialist. “The main purpose of the IFSP meeting is to offer information and resources to the family and talk about their concerns,” (Pacer.org, 2011). Every six months the team will review the plan and must have it updated once a year. The review will consist of the child’s progress and the family’s situation as a whole. When the team is completing an IFSP, there is some content that has to be involved. The team must establish the level of development that the child is currently at. A statement must be included to talk about “present levels of physical development (including vision, hearing, and health status), cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional development, and adaptive development based on the information from that child’s evaluation and assessments,” (IDEA, 2017). Concerns from the family, resources, and even priorities must be included in the statement to improve the development of the child. Child and family strengths will be written down to help the team better understand the family as a whole. Results and outcomes have to also be in the statement. Outcomes can also be called goals for the child. 

A conclusive answer on how the progress will be observed as well as what early intervention services are needed to support the needs of the child and family will be determined. Lastly, as claimed the services must be provided in a natural setting for the child for an assessment. The service coordinator will have their information included on the plan and will track all of the meeting dated and how the length of the meeting. All of the motor skills for the child will be observed and will be written down as an evaluation. There may be a section that includes steps to support the child to have a smooth transition into a preschool or daycare. This section will be discussed more frequently when the child is at the age to leave the IFSP program. The goals can be for the individual child that is created by the team based on the developmental desires of the child and for the family’s priorities. It is a team endeavor that is not specific to discipline; it is aimed at the outcomes. Always develop outcomes and goals before the services are placed. The services a child needs should be based on the outcome of the goal to be measured. “Outcome statements are often participation-based, focusing on the child’s interests and assets that will provide opportunities for learning and development. Other times, IFSP outcome statements focus on the routines and activities that parents want or need to go more smoothly, such as mealtimes or bedtime routines,” (ECTA, 2012). 

For the statement find the functional area, determine the effect of their routine, develop how it reflects the child’s participation, then complete the statement by concluding it. We could say that a child has a functional area towards eating, so it would affect mealtime with the family. The statement for the child’s participation could be ‘‘Kelly will eat with her family at mealtime.’’ By concluding it the sentence can be “by eating the foods the family eats.” This shows the area to work on and a goal for Kelly, the daughter, to focus on. The IFSP team can observe Kelly and try to have her eat new foods, eat the same food as her family, or even try to decrease her refusal to foods at mealtime.