Learning Bytes
Learning bytes are brief learning activities that supervisors, faculty, or other leaders can use to facilitate professional development with staff or students. These activities are designed to be of short duration and explore topics of importance to EI practitioners. Each learning byte includes instructions and any handouts, links, worksheets, and answer keys needed to facilitate the activity with small or large groups. Please feel free to print and use these learning bytes (with appropriate citation if used outside of Virginia).
Do you have a suggestion for a learning byte activity or topic?
Email Lisa Terry.
NEW - Elevator Speeches - Learning Bytes
Available Resources
After the Screening: Utilizing the Social-Emotional Assessment/Evaluation Measur
This activity allows professionals to explore information about the use of the SEAM. In turn, participants will discuss how the SEAM supports outcome development, service delivery, and progress monitoring.
Decision Tree Practice - Bella
This scenario-based activity is designed to help participants practice using the Decision Tree. This scenario features a discussion about the functional social-emotional skills of Bella, a toddler with a delay in expressive communication.
Documenting Functional Assessment on the Initial IFSP
This activity is designed to review an initial IFSP for functional assessment characteristics.
Enhancing Quality Functional Assessments
This activity is designed to help early interventionists reflect on current functional assessment practices including enhancing family engagement, asking open-ended questions, teaming, addressing challenges, and incorporating strategies.
Lily’s Assessment and the Three OSEP Child Outcomes
This activity is designed to provide an example of how information from an assessment for service planning can be used to provide a comprehensive overview of a child’s development using the three OSEP child outcomes.
Supporting Families in Making Informed Decisions
This activity is designed to consider the role practitioners play in sharing information with caregivers to support them in making informed decisions for their child.
This activity is designed to support professionals in using the SAFER tool to ask open-ended questions about family routines and determine caregivers’ priorities.
Capturing Family Information in IFSP Section II: A, B, & C
The purpose of this activity is allow learners to practice writing a complete, informative description of a family’s daily activities and routines and priorities, resources, and concerns in Section II: B and C of the IFSP.
Child Interests Can Drive Outcomes and EI Implementation
This activity is designed to support learners as they consider child interests and everyday routines to promote family-centered IFSP outcomes and interest-based EI implementation.
Collaborating with Fathers in EI
This activity is designed to build awareness of the importance of engaging fathers and facilitate reflection, discussion, and planning among EI practitioners about how they collaborate (or could improve collaboration) with fathers.
Conducting Tele-Assessments - 3-Session Plan
This activity is designed to facilitate learning, problem-solving, and reflection among early intervention (EI) practitioners about the practices they use to prepare for and conduct tele-assessment using video conferencing with families.
Determining IFSP Supports & Services
The purpose of this activity is to encourage thought and discussion about how IFSP teams determine which supports and services might be appropriate for a child and family.
This activity is designed to show early interventionists how to identify the “goodness of fit” between caregivers and their children using the Infant Toddler Temperament Tool (IT3).
The purpose of this activity is to assist learners in considering strategies to identify individual interests and gathering more information using open-ended questions.
Introducing the SS-OO-PP-RR Home Visiting Method to Support Coaching Practices
This activity introduces the SS-OO-PP-RR home visiting method for coaching families during intervention visits. This approach is part of the Family-Guided Routines Based Intervention (FGRBI) model, which includes strategies for engaging families.
This activity is designed to start a conversation about things to consider and strategies for managing repeated episodes of families not being present for scheduled visits.
Orientation to Tele-Intervention - 3-Session Plan
This activity is designed to orient new staff to tele-intervention, or providing early intervention services using video conferencing technology. It can also be used with current staff who are new to tele-intervention.
Say What? – Translating Technical Jargon (Activity A and Activity B)
The purpose of these two activities is to encourage EI practitioners to think about the technical jargon and various acronyms associated with eligibility determination, assessment for service planning, and the provision of supports and services.
The purpose of this activity is to guide learners as they review key things to remember about transition and reflect on how they can use this information in their daily work with children and families.
Using Tele-Intervention to Conduct EI Visits - 2-Session Plan
This activity is designed to facilitate learning, problem-solving, and reflection among early intervention (EI) practitioners about the practices they use to prepare for and conduct tele-intervention visits using video conferencing with families.
This activity is designed to help break down routines and understand how they relate to brain development.
What Do We Know about the Pyramid Model Framework?
The purpose of this activity is to increase familiarity with using the Pyramid Model Framework in early intervention to support families in facilitating infant-toddler social and emotional development.
This activity illustrates the differences between traditional early intervention visits and visits that are aligned with the mission and key principles of early intervention.
Ask Good Questions, Get Good Answers
The purpose of this activity is to provide practitioners with examples of questions they can ask families to learn about family activities and routines, child interests, important people and places, and family priorities for their child’s development and intervention. This activity also encourages practitioners to examine their interactions with families and extend their interview skills.
Outcome Development Crossword Puzzle
The purpose of this activity is to review key terms associated with IFSP outcome development.
Greatest Challenges and Best Solutions
The purpose of this activity is to provide participants with an opportunity to discuss their greatest challenges related to outcome development and receive support while finding solutions or ways to overcome those challenges.
The purpose of this activity is to provide learners with an opportunity to review an IFSP outcome that they developed prior to this learning byte and to then modify the same outcome with the new skills and techniques they have learned.
The purpose of this activity is to facilitate discussion about active listening and information gathering when meeting a family. A scenario is used to allow practitioners to examine family priorities, resources, and concerns and then use this information for IFSP outcome development.
Peer Review of Outcomes and Goals
This activity is designed to improve the quality of IFSP outcomes.
Writing Outcomes and Determining Services for Lily
This activity is designed to provide an example of how information from an assessment for service planning can be used to develop family-centered IFSP outcomes and goals and determine early intervention services.
Writing Social-Emotional Outcomes
This activity is designed to help the team reflect on writing social-emotional outcomes.
Talking with Families about Screen Time
This activity is designed to help early intervention practitioners respond to family questions and concerns about screen time (use of phones, tablets, computers, TV) for infants and toddlers.
Do’s and Don’ts for Managing Unclean Environments
This activity is designed to support learners when they encounter unclean environments on early intervention visits.
Home Visiting Safety: Be Aware and Trust Your InstinctsHome Visiting Safety: Be Aware and Trust Your Instincts
This activity is designed to support learners as they consider tips and strategies to promote personal safety during early intervention visits.
Home Visiting Safety: Let’s Think About Your Car
This activity is designed to support learners as they review key things to remember about car safety during early intervention visits.
It’s as Simple as…People FIRST
The purpose of this activity is to introduce the concept of “People First Language.”
Managing Difficult Early Intervention Visits
The purpose of this activity is to consider a variety of difficult early intervention visiting scenarios and to brainstorm strategies the service coordinator or provider could use to effectively manage them.
The purpose of this activity is to guide learners as they reflect on personal biases or judgmental thinking while teaching them reframing techniques to use in their daily work with children and families.
Safety During Early Intervention Visits – A Vignette
This activity is designed to support learners as they consider tips and strategies to promote personal safety during early intervention visits.
This activity is designed to help practitioners consider the concepts of cultural humility and cultural competence and how they apply in their work with children and families.
Coaching during Service Coordination: What Does It Look Like? – Part 1
This activity is designed to build understanding about the use of coaching practices during service coordination. This activity can be used to prepare for further discussion and illustration of coaching practices using the Part 2 activity in this series.
Coaching during Service Coordination: What Does It Look Like? – Part 2
This activity is designed to provide service coordinators and supervisors with examples of what coaching during service coordination looks like and does not look like and facilitate reflect on the practices used with families. This activity builds on the discussion began during the Part 1 activity in this series.
Owning Your Role as the Facilitator
This activity is designed to help service coordinators identify ways to facilitate meetings effectively.
Real Scenarios for Real Service Coordinators
This activity illustrates how the five coaching characteristics (joint planning, observation, action/practice, reflection, feedback) can be used by service coordinators to gather information and support families.
Elevator Speeches: Utilizing for Professional Development
This activity allows professionals to watch and reflect on a variety of topics (Parent Perspectives, The EI Process, Preservice, Resources, Roles, and Strategies) from Elevator Speeches videos.
The purpose of this activity is to share national autism resources.
Opioids and Substance Exposed Infants
This activity is designed to provide national quick facts and data related to opioid use and effects on substance exposed infants.
Prematurity and Autism Pop Quiz
The purpose of this activity is to quickly share information about the correlation between prematurity and autism.
Supporting Caregivers to Engage their Toddler with Autism
This activity is designed to consider tips and strategies to support caregivers in engaging with their child with autism or autism-like characteristics.
Virginia Facts: The Opioid Crisis and Substance Exposed Infants
This activity is designed to provide Virginia-specific information/data related to opioid use and effects on substance exposed infants.