Service Coordinator: A service coordinator coordinates the evaluation and assessment information, helps you in the development and review of your child’s Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP), and assists you in identifying available resource services. He/she coordinates and monitors the delivery of early intervention services, communicates with any medical and health providers involved with your child, and helps with the transition to community programs when your child is no longer eligible for JCDC services.

Special Educators: The special educator is responsible for implementing activities in the home and classroom to enhance the development of the child’s skills and incorporating the IFSP goals into the daily routines of the family. Activities are centered on cognition, communication, and fine and gross motor, social skills, emotional and self-help skills. Activities are varied and structured yet include time for free play.

Occupational Therapist: An occupational therapist (often called an O.T.) uses a developmental framework in assessing play, sensorimotor, posture, adaptive skills, fine motor manipulation, and oral-motor feeding. Therapeutic treatment is aimed at helping the child develop and improve self-help skills, adaptive behavior, and play skills. Assessments and observations are often used to assess muscle tone, strength, coordination, motor planning, and sensory processing. The O.T. can determine the child’s sensory and motor readiness for motor and self-care activities and can help with questions related to devleopmental milestones. O.T.’s work in collaboration with parents to determine the child’s readiness for each developmental skill and individualize a program to meet the child's needs.

Physical Therapist: A physical therapist (often called a P.T.) is usually consulted to assess and work with children who have difficulty with gross motor skills (e.g., rolling, sitting, standing, and walking). Physical Therapists teach children how to functionally use their muscles to play and explore their environment. They provide equipment adaptations and evaluate positioning needs. Physical Therapists work in collaboration with parents to determine the child’s readiness for each developmental milestone and develop a program to meet individual needs. P.T.’s and O.T.’s have similar developmental training. Therefore, there may be some overlap between disciplines and services.

Speech-Language Pathologists: A speech-language pathologist helps families understand their child’s communication problems. These problems arise when a young child has difficulties either understanding words and sentences or expressing needs and thoughts. There are many communication forms such as: gestures, signs, vocalizations, and true words. Speech-language pathologists help families identify the communication strategies their child is using and teach them how to encourage their child to communicate more specifically. When some children begin talking, they have difficulty using sounds correctly in words and phrases, which makes it difficult for others to understand their communicative attempts. With these children, speech-language pathologists may work on specific sound development.

Nurse: The JCDC has a registered nurse who will visit with you and complete a health review that includes, height, weight, vision screening and check on immunization records.

Audiologist: The JCDC has audiologists who will complete a yearly hearing assessment on your child. The audiologist will follow your child very closely for any hearing problems.

Vision and Hearing Specialists: The Utah School for the Deaf and Blind Parent Infant Program (PIP) offers vision and hearing services as part of the local early intervention team. PIP provides home-based services to families and consultation services to other professionals working with the child. The parent advisor for the child with a hearing or visual impairment participates as a member of the multi-disciplinary team. In this role, the parent advisor assesses the sensory impairment and service needs; writes IFSP outcomes; provides adaptive ideas and activities; offers family support and serves as a resource to community services.

Assessment: ongoing procedures used by qualified professionals throughout a child's early intervention experience to identify his or her unique needs; the family's resources, priorities and concerns related to his or her development; and the nature and extent of early intervention services required to meet these needs.

Assistive technology devices: any item, piece of equipment or product system used to increase, maintain or improve your child's ability to do things.

Assistive technology services: a service that directly assists a child with a disability to select, get or use an assistive technology device.

Baby Watch Early Intervention Program (BWEIP): A program within the State of Utah Department of Health that is responsible for the administration of the statewide early intervention service delivery system for children with disabilities under three years of age and their families.

Developmental Delay: 1.5 standard deviations at or below the mean, or at or below the 7th percentile in one or more areas of development.

Early Intervention: a collection of services provided by public and private agencies and designed by law to support eligible children and families in enhancing a child's potential for growth and development from birth to age three.

Evaluation: procedures used by qualified professionals to determine a child's initial and continuing eligibility which focus on determining the status of the infant or toddler in all of the developmental areas: cognitive, social/emotional, physical (including vision and hearing), communication, and adaptive.

Family Centered Care: the principle that promotes parents as the decision makers and builds parent/professional partnerships.