Competency Areas for the Delivery of Evidence-Based Evaluations and Services in the New York State Early Intervention Program

The New York State Department of Health Bureau of Early Intervention issued two documents to ensure that high quality early intervention evaluations and services are provided to children and their families in the Early Intervention Program in terms of both pre-graduate preparation and post-graduate professional development:

  1. The Competency Areas for the Delivery of Evidenced-Based Evaluations and Services in the New York State Early Intervention Program (PDF)
  2. The Companion Document for the Competency Areas of Evidenced-Based Evaluations and Services in the New York State Early Intervention Program (PDF)

The New York State Early Intervention Coordinating Council (SEICC) convened the Workforce Capacity Taskforce to enhance workforce capacity in the New York State Early Intervention Program. The taskforce conducted a detailed review of early intervention and early childhood literature to identify areas of competency that support quality early intervention evaluations and services for infants and toddlers with developmental delays or disabilities and their families in Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) programs.

The Competency Areas are designed to

  • Support skills building for the early intervention workforce in delivering evaluations and services.
  • Incorporate recognition that building on-going cultural and linguistic competence are central to individualized, successful and respectful Early Intervention practice in partnership with families.
  • Guide development of required NYS BEI continuing education for NYS early intervention professionals delivering evaluation and services.
  • Be shared with graduate programs that train EI professionals, the accrediting organizations that guide graduate professional training, and professional organizations in order to increase early childhood curriculum content and training experiences based on best practices identified in Part C of IDEA, and to promote exposure and skills-building by offering field experience in early intervention and early childhood settings.

The Companion Document contains definitions for each of the five competency areas and lists related learning objectives, identifies the types of knowledge and skills that characterizes each area, and provides the evidence-based research, papers, and tools to create early intervention curricula and professional development programs to support pre-service graduate preparation and post-graduate professional development. Each competency area has a summary table followed by a deeper discussion of the definition, knowledge and skills, along with resources to support further learning. At the end of the Companion Document are appendices containing additional papers, books, videos, and resources for each of the competencies, fieldwork placements, and for telehealth.

Click on each competency area below to review the respective summary table:

  1. Typical and atypical childhood development and behavior (birth to three) to support quality evaluations, on-going monitoring of progress, and the creation of developmentally appropriate, individualized strategies in partnership with parents and caregivers.
  2. Multi-cultural and diversity factors related to engaging and working with EI families, performing quality evaluations, and providing services.
  3. Understanding the parent-child dyad and enhancing families’ capacities to help their children through consistent and effective communication, coaching, coordination, and collaboration.
  4. Understanding and use of evidence-based, family-centered best practices with families and caregivers via parent/caregiver collaboration, coaching and strengthening family capacities.
  5. Reflective practice and reflective supervision to support self-reflection and on-going professional development.