Fredericksburg Parent

16 Fredericksburg Parent and Family • May 2020 Ask the Expert a sk t h e e x p e rt WRITTEN BY EMILY FREEHLING During the first three years of life, a child's brain is growing rapidly, with nerve cells forming connections that lay the foundation for a lifetime of learning. That's why the years of zero to 3 are so crucial to a child's development, and why interventions targeting developmental delays during these years can have such impact. "We want children to have as many rich experiences as they can in those early years so that they have the greatest depth of synapses and brain connections, so that later on they can pull from that reserve to help them move further forward," said Alison Standring, Part C Coordinator of the Infant & Toddler Connection of the Rappahannock Area. May is Early Intervention Awareness Month in Virginia, and as this month finds Virginians liv- ing under a stay-at-home order to slow the spread of Covid-19, early childhood experts stress that parents and caregivers of young children can and should still reach out to the resources in our community that provide early intervention to children with developmental delays. The Parent Education – Infant Development Program, part of the Rappahannock Area Community Services Board, has provided multi-disciplinary support to parents and young chil- dren in the Fredericksburg area for more than four decades. PE-ID, known to many as "Early Intervention," provides services for children in Stafford, Spotsylvania, Caroline and King George Counties and the city of Fredericksburg. Parents can contact the program directly, and pediatricians and hospitals also refer families to the program, which provides in-home support—from occupational and physical therapists, speech pathologists, educators, and Service Coordinators—to parents and children. As the Covid-19 crisis has closed schools and curtailed in-person interactions, Early Intervention has taken its services virtual to ensure that critical time isn't lost with these children. These services have been "life-changing" for Fredericksburg-area mother Nicole Jones, whose twins, Oliver and Olivia, entered the program on referral from her pediatrician around the time of their second birthday. After five months in the program, Jones said, her children have gone from being non- verbal and biting and fighting in response to their frustration with not being able to com- municate to repeating what they hear Jones say to them, showing verbal affection and reminding her of their progress every time she hears them say, "Mommy." Early Intervention Makes a Parents should not wait to access services because of the Covid-19 shutdown Difference Difference LIFE- CHANGING

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