Fredericksburg Parent

22 Fredericksburg Parent and Family • Stories of Strength Special Issue INTERVIEWED BY EMILY FREEHLING When you're in the business of helping children overcome developmental obstacles in their first three years of life, 10 months—the amount of time COVID-19 has disrupted daily life so far—is an eternity. Rappahannock Area Community Services Board So when in-person, home-based therapy was shut down in March 2020 to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, the staff of the Parent Education – Infant Development Program (PE-ID) program, part of the Rappahannock Area Community Services Board, took a mere 48 hours to find a way to replicate their services via secure Zoom calls. "We had never delivered services virtually before—we hadn't even watched it before," said Alison Standring, Part C Coordinator of the Infant & Toddler Connection of the Rappahannock Area. "We took a leap of faith. Our staff were fantastic, and families were right there with us. Here we are several months later, and we are completely in it and it is awesome." PE-ID, known to many as "Early Intervention," has provided multi-disciplinary support to par- ents and young children in the Fredericksburg area for more than four decades. Early Intervention provides services for children from birth to age 3 in Stafford, Spotsylvania, Caroline and King George Counties and the city of Fredericksburg. Parents can contact the pro- gram directly, and pediatricians and hospitals also refer families to the program, which provides support—from occupational and physical therapists, speech pathologists, educators, and service coordinators—to parents and children. When those services had to transition from in-home visits to Zoom calls, Standring and program coordinator Suzanne Haskell initially worried about being able to continue to deliv- er effective interventions to keep children's development on-track. They were surprised to learn that the virtual delivery of speech therapy, physical therapy and other specialties actually gave parents a confi- dence they might not have gained if the special- ist had been in the home holding the child. "It has been very empowering for parents, because they don't have the extra person in their house doing it for them. They are doing it themselves," Haskell said. One father who might have been reluctant to get down on the floor with his child in front of a stranger was able to engage with his provider virtually from the privacy of his home and suc- ceed in getting his son to say his first words. Parents are Empowered Through Virtual Early Intervention Services During Pandemic

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