ECDIS INTERVENTION ASSOCIATION

NSECDIS provides province-wide specialized services to families of young children between birth and school entry who either have a biological risk for or a diagnosis of developmental delay. Consultation information support and services designed to meet the individual needs of each child and family are delivered by the Developmental Interventionist in the child’s home and may extend to community based programs. Services emphasize the enhancement of skills and abilities through planned interactions to promote child development and family capacity. The Pyramid Model program supports licensed childcare and pre-primary programs in Nova Scotia with monitoring and sharing resources to support early childhood educators in building social emotional competence in all infants and young children. The Pyramid Model for Supporting Social Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children is a conceptual framework of evidence based practices for promoting young children’s healthy social and emotional development. Alongside Pyramid Model Positive Solutions for Families is a training series for parents and caregivers with information on how to promote children’s social and emotional skills understand challenging behaviors and use positive approaches to support young children.

ECDIS served 3 972 children and their families this fiscal year; 1 613 were referred to us 15% more than the previous fiscal. Developmental Interventionists completed 17 180 hours of home visits and consultations provided by video or phone. There is continual increase in families new to Nova Scotia Indigenous and African Nova Scotian families accessing our services. Pyramid Model Inclusion Coaches had 1 748 visits to pre-primary programs and 258 of these schools and classrooms are implementing the Pyramid Model. They also visited 875 regulated child care programs that included classroom coaching and educators being coached. The Newborn Behaviour Observation System project Baby Steps for high-risk infants continues with hospital-community collaboration. Baby Steps had 97 new families and 38 of these families continued with early intervention services.