Preparing for an Early Intervention Placement

Speech-Language Pathology graduate clinicians must complete off-campus clinical placements (also known as externships, internships, or clinical practicums). The exact number of placements varies by the graduate program. Early intervention (EI) placements are coveted experiences for some, but not all, graduate clinicians. Below are tips for preparing for an early intervention placement in Speech-Language Pathology.

Clinician Characteristics

First, let me explain that even though services are provided in the home vs. a hospital, early intervention is considered a pediatric medical site. It’s more than “just” play-based therapy; you will be working with some medically fragile populations. If you are interested in a pediatric medical placement, hospital settings can be hard to come by. There are fewer slots available, making it very competitive. If you open yourself to an EI placement, you will have more opportunities to gain amazing medical experience.

EI does bring its own set of challenges. For starters, visits are done in the home, which means you will need reliable transportation and may go into houses that are less than cozy. Also, you will be working with medically complex patients and that comes with a lot of emotional responsibility. The parents are stressed, exhausted, and most likely still need to do everyday things like work and grocery shopping.

In order to be successful in an early intervention placement setting, there are specific traits that are beneficial. Clinicians who excel in these placements usually are:

• Flexible
• Empathetic
• Adept at soft skills
• Good problem solvers
• Autonomous
• Calm and collected

Before Beginning Placement

In order to succeed in any early intervention placement, you will need to have a strong interest in medical Speech-Language Pathology. I am seeing more and more certificate programs in EI that offer stipends for clinicians who complete at least 2 years in EI post-graduation. That’s a nice bonus! 🎉  Prior to beginning the placement, I strongly recommend you do the following:

• Review the parent coaching model
• Develop soft skills (i.e., interpersonal communication, empathy, etc.)
• Know developmental milestones for 0-3 years (i.e., motor, speech/language, feeding, cognition, play)
• Familiarize yourself with other disciplines (e.g., OT, PT, Psy, Play Therapy, Behavior Therapy)
• Review common early intervention assessments (e.g., Battelle, Rosetti, Reel, HELP, DayC)
• Learn early intervention language strategies (e.g., self-talk, narration, etc.)
• Ask the externship supervisor what materials will be available and then review them
• Research information on specific populations (e.g., prematurity, bilingual language learners, chromosomal anomalies, etc.)

During Placement

Once you are in the middle of the placement, you will be glad that you did some prep work beforehand. There are still things that you can do to minimize your stress and keep yourself organized throughout the placement. In order to have a rewarding experience, clinicians should be:

• Comfortable with coaching parents
• Flexible and adaptable
• Willing to complete early intervention modules
• Able to work collaboratively with other SLPs and related professionals
• Open to various supervision styles as you may have multiple supervisors
• Creative with materials that are in the client’s home

In the comments below, let me know if you are a student or supervisor and what skills you think are necessary for excelling in an early intervention placement. 👇 Be sure to check out my other posts:

How to Have a Successful Clinical Practicum (Part 1)
How to Have a Successful Clinical Practicum (Part 2)
Get the SLP Externship You Want