What does an early intervention specialist do?
Early intervention specialists are responsible for determining and helping youth who are manifesting deficiencies in the fundamental areas of learning. They are trained teachers who work with youngsters between birth and age four to direct developmental impediments. Also, they have an essential role in bridging children and their families with other social service workers. Their jobs include carefully evaluating the child, establishing developmental goals, creating medication plans, recommending learning activities, and keeping track of the child's progress.
Early intervention specialist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real early intervention specialist resumes:
- Experience training new staff on basic ABA principles and new cases.
- Strive to reduce symptoms of specify developmental disorder, usually an autism spectrum disorder.
- Train paraprofessionals to work with children on the autism spectrum and implement picture schedules for optimal learning.
- Instruct families on how to use adaptive equipment or help them use the tool in their environment.
- Coordinate services for child base on recommendations specific educational needs, including specialize adaptive equipment and individual therapies.
- Coordinate with local special education preschool child find teams evaluations and IEP meetings.
- Give input during IEP meetings to inform school districts of child's strengths and needs.
- Determine participants' eligibility for program by gathering data and maintaining information to ensure clients are compliant for TANF program regulations.
Early intervention specialist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 17% of Early Intervention Specialists are proficient in Early Intervention, Developmental Disabilities, and Applied Behavior Analysis. They’re also known for soft skills such as Emotional skills, Organizational skills, and Problem-solving skills.
We break down the percentage of Early Intervention Specialists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Early Intervention, 17%
Provide developmental services to children who qualify for early intervention program through medical diagnosis, developmental delays, or atypical development.
- Developmental Disabilities, 11%
Provided developmental intervention and parent education and training for children with health conditions and developmental disabilities and their families.
- Applied Behavior Analysis, 9%
Provide on going applied behavior analysis to children on the autism spectrum.
- Child Development, 7%
Established important base of knowledge regarding milestones in early child development essential to providing pediatric treatment at any age.
- Social Development, 7%
Assist children between 4- 12 years of age with educational resources as well as social development needs.
- Emotional Development, 7%
Provide direct care and instruction to the child in the area of cognition, social and emotional development.
Common skills that an early intervention specialist uses to do their job include "early intervention," "developmental disabilities," and "applied behavior analysis." You can find details on the most important early intervention specialist responsibilities below.
Organizational skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling early intervention specialist duties is organizational skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "social workers must help and manage multiple clients, often assisting with their paperwork or documenting their treatment." According to an early intervention specialist resume, here's how early intervention specialists can utilize organizational skills in their job responsibilities: "applied organizational leadership goals to develop outreach strategy communicated organizational focus at community events to inform families about home visiting services"
Problem-solving skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of early intervention specialists is problem-solving skills. This skill is critical to many everyday early intervention specialist duties, as "social workers must analyze their clients’ complex situations and develop practical solutions." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "conflict resolution techniques, community integration, job development, cpr/fa certified, map certified. "
Interpersonal skills. A big part of what early intervention specialists do relies on "interpersonal skills." You can see how essential it is to early intervention specialist responsibilities because "social workers must be able to work with different groups of people." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical early intervention specialist tasks: "exemplified good interpersonal and crisis intervention skills, including oral and written communications, and group facilitation. "
Communication skills. Another common skill required for early intervention specialist responsibilities is "communication skills." This skill comes up in the duties of early intervention specialists all the time, as "clients talk to social workers about challenges in their lives." An excerpt from a real early intervention specialist resume shows how this skill is central to what an early intervention specialist does: "develop functional communication skills in the natural environment using play based intervention. "
The three companies that hire the most early intervention specialists are:
- Pediatric Partners, now a member of the Sevita family59 early intervention specialists jobs
- WCCA - Wright County Community Action
21 early intervention specialists jobs
- National Mentor Holdings Inc.
20 early intervention specialists jobs
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Compare different early intervention specialists
Early intervention specialist vs. Counselor
Often, counselors are known to be the go-to person in times we are in need of emotional and psychological support. They help people to manage and overcome the issues which affect their mental health and well-being. Counselors face different kind of situations which may involve trauma, addiction, disabilities, abuse, suicide, anger management, career, and even personal relationships. They provide care, counseling, rehabilitation, and support services. Every counseling requires collaborative effort both from the counselor and client to become effective.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of an early intervention specialist are more likely to require skills like "early intervention," "applied behavior analysis," "child development," and "social development." On the other hand, a job as a counselor requires skills like "patients," "substance abuse," "cpr," and "family therapy." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Counselors tend to make the most money working in the education industry, where they earn an average salary of $37,750. In contrast, early intervention specialists make the biggest average salary, $41,631, in the professional industry.counselors tend to reach similar levels of education than early intervention specialists. In fact, counselors are 3.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Early intervention specialist vs. Program counselor
A Program Counselor is an essential part of a school's faculty. It's the counselor's responsibility to ensure that students are benefiting from the school's educational curriculum. This person is also tasked to help students resolve issues and problems that may hinder any educational progress. They are also part of the disciplinary team intended to instill good morals, ethics, and decency in students. The Program Counselor is one of the teacher or professor who has expertise or has a high educational degree in a particular subject or field.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real early intervention specialist resumes. While early intervention specialist responsibilities can utilize skills like "early intervention," "applied behavior analysis," "child development," and "social development," program counselors use skills like "patients," "community integration," "cpr," and "medication administration."
Program counselors earn a lower average salary than early intervention specialists. But program counselors earn the highest pay in the health care industry, with an average salary of $41,845. Additionally, early intervention specialists earn the highest salaries in the professional with average pay of $41,631 annually.In general, program counselors achieve lower levels of education than early intervention specialists. They're 5.4% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for early intervention specialists in the next 3-5 years?
Lesley Casarez Ph.D.
Director, Quality Enhancement Plan Program Coordinator, M.S. Professional School Counseling Associate Professor, Curriculum and Instruction, Angelo State University
Early intervention specialist vs. Alcohol and drug counselor
A drug & alcohol counselor treats addicts in either one-on-one or group settings. They help by educating and developing possible treatment plans for patients to support them in coping with their addictive personalities. A drug and alcohol counselor will evaluate to determine the progress has been successfully made towards recovery. They help patients better understand and overcome their addictions. Counselors help through offering support, rehabilitation, and guidance by using various techniques. Drug & alcohol counselors seek to help an addict find the source of their addiction.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, an early intervention specialist is likely to be skilled in "early intervention," "developmental disabilities," "applied behavior analysis," and "child development," while a typical alcohol and drug counselor is skilled in "patients," "rehabilitation," "substance abuse treatment," and "treatment services."
Alcohol and drug counselors make a very good living in the professional industry with an average annual salary of $44,333. On the other hand, early intervention specialists are paid the highest salary in the professional industry, with average annual pay of $41,631.When it comes to education, alcohol and drug counselors tend to earn similar degree levels compared to early intervention specialists. In fact, they're 1.3% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.2% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Early intervention specialist vs. Case worker
Caseworkers are social workers who watch over the welfare of underprivileged individuals and at-risk families by counseling and providing them with assistance. Usually employed under the government or a local non-profit organization, a caseworker must conduct a thorough interview and house visits to determine the needs of the family. They then refer them to any programs or agencies that can give them the specific care and help needed. Furthermore, it is crucial to identify neglect and abuse signs, reporting them to the authorities right away.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between early intervention specialists and case workers, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, an early intervention specialist might have more use for skills like "applied behavior analysis," "child development," "social development," and "emotional development." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of case workers require skills like "patients," "substance abuse," "child abuse," and "customer service. "
The education industry tends to pay the highest salaries for case workers, with average annual pay of $40,730. Comparatively, the highest early intervention specialist annual salary comes from the professional industry.In general, case workers hold lower degree levels compared to early intervention specialists. Case workers are 8.7% less likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.5% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of early intervention specialist
Updated January 8, 2025
