Aging with Flair, LLC
Early Intervention
TESTIMONIAL
ORIGIN STORIES
I began my work as an Early Interventionist more than 25 years ago when a friend recommended the job for me. I am so happy to say, that this was the best decision I have ever made. I have always had a passion for helping children in their abilities to learn and grow, along with being an advocate, for each individual family and their needs. I have grown from an Early Interventionist to Supervisor, and then Director for the state. I work with an amazing group of ladies I am truly blessed to be part of the Aging with Flair family.
I ‘ve always had a heart for kids and knew that I wanted to work with kids. I began working in daycare starting off, but soon realize that I had a passion for helping children learn and reach milestone. I found the opportunity to work in Early Intervention when I moved to Georgia years ago and fell in love with a profession. It is the most rewarding job that I have had.
I grew up with my brother who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy and saw all of the resources my mother needed throughout his life. My brother is now happily married to an Occupational Therapist who encouraged me to use my skill set for other families in need through being an Early Interventionist.
I was an ABA therapist for three years after college and loved working with the children. My husband began working as an EI with another company and loved it so I decided to give it a try. I’ve been in EI for the last five years and I love my job!
I learned about Early Intervention when I worked as a Headstart teacher in Bowling Green, Kentucky. One of our Education Specialists left to become a Developmental Interventionist for First Steps and I messaged her to learn more about her career change. That is when I became a service coordinator for First Steps Kentucky’s Early Intervention program. When we moved to South Carolina I was eager to become an Early Interventionist because I would conduct weekly family training sessions to help our children and families reach their developmental milestones.
About a year ago I interviewed with Anne at Behaviors A Go-Go and I didn’t take the job in Applied Behavior Analysis at that point, and I continued to work on school and right before I graduated from university I reached out to Anne because the last thing that I remember her saying was feel free to reach out to me if you feel you want to explore other opportunities with the company and that is what I did and after many phone conversations, I am here at Aging with Flair. Thanks Anne.
I did not find Early Intervention, Early Intervention found me. I have always loved working with children. I began with baby sitting during my younger years, was employed at a few church daycare centers, civilian and military child care facilities. While living in Japan I started family child care so I can have my 3 girls at home with me, I ran a very successful, nationally accredited family child care home for 17 years. I promised my hubby that when he retired from the Air Force I would stop providing care in our home but I knew I wanted to continue to work with children. That’s when Early Intervention “FOUND” me. Looking back I’ve always done early intervention but officially I became an actual EI right after hubby retired. I have provided care for many children from all walks of life, nationalities, cultures and disabilities. Being able to help families no matter what level they are on is very rewarding. When you love what you do it is no longer a job. And I love what I do!
I found early intervention in a roundabout way. Actually, I was doing early intervention before I knew what to call it. I have always loved preschool aged children, and one of my favorite jobs involve the First Steps program. I learned so much about development and therapies through the First Steps program. I loved working with the children, but I also enjoy supporting the families. After several years, I began a job search and, by this time, had a name for my love – early intervention. I’m excited to be part of Aging with Flair!
I love working with children, but after 25 years in the classroom working with special needs students I was looking for a new way to impact children in a positive way. When I discovered an article on Facebook about Early Intervention, I was intrigued with the possibilities!
All my life, I knew I wanted to work with children. I’ve always had a passion and a heart for helping children, especially those with delays, disabilities or illnesses. Throughout college, I considered careers in child’s life or occupational therapy. I thought about teaching for a while, but I was not sure if that was some thing I really wanted to do. After learning about early intervention from my sister, it sounded exactly like some thing I thought I would enjoy doing. I did research on early intervention to make sure it was right for me and felt like I was being called to do it. I love that my job is getting to help children and families. I think what I like the most is the one on one time that you get with the children and feeling of fulfillment when you see the progress they’ve made.
I was unaware of Early Intervention until after college, when I was job hunting. I stumbled upon a job listing for Early Intervention when I was researching listings with my Social Services degree. When I got called in to do an interview and the process of these services was explained, I was awed, and pulled right into this world! I have loved it ever since hearing about it, and truly believe it is a very rewarding experience.
I first learned of Early Intervention in college, while taking special education classes, learning about the IDEA law.
I found Early Intervention by accident. I was in my second year of teaching and growing frustrated with the child to teacher ratio and red tape to complete to obtain simple but much needed services for my students. I was also spending way too much money on my students and my classroom, and my dad finally told me that he could no longer afford for me to be a teacher. An aide in another kindergarten class mentioned to me a job where I could work one on one with children with Special Needs. She provided me contact information for an Early Interventionist at Richland /Lexington DDSN, and my journey began. I made a brief (20 year) pause, but then found myself chatting and someone asked me what I do for a living and I paused and said “ I am a stay at home mom.” They gushed about that opportunity and ask the age of my child. I paused and said “20 and attending college at Newberry.“ It dawned on me that I really could no longer say stay at home mom as my son lives a majority of the year at college. A few late weeks later I ran into a former colleague at the grocery store, who was still in the EI profession and encourage me to apply.
As an early childhood educator with a public school sector, I have always been drawn to kiddos with disabilities and their families. Often times I was the first point of contact when it came to noticing needs, and I worked tirelessly to ensure that they had plans in place to accommodate their needs once they left my classroom. Often times, the students could have been much further along in their development, if their parents knew that help was available to them during those years before school, whether or not, they attended daycare. My heart is with these kiddos and their families, and I am grateful for the opportunity to serve as their champion so that they don’t have to find success alone.
I studied speech- language pathology, but still at work for my license. As I was searching for a job, I came to a listing for Early Interventionist. It quickly caught my eye as the job description was perfect for me!
After getting laid off during the COVID pandemic, I was looking for a career where I could continue to do what I love while also having the flexibility in my schedule to be there for my family. Early Intervention has allowed me to use my knowledge and my degree, while working to make a difference in the lives of local families in my own community.
TESTIMONIAL
MEMORABLE MOMENTS
During my years, I’ve had the opportunity to watch so many children grow and meet their developmental milestones. Early intervention has provided me to not only work with a child but the entire family. Last year I had a little girl that I served that was on hospice, and the prognosis was not great. I was able to work with the child, family and doctors, and witnessed her learning to roll over, lift her head and meet other developmental milestones. I am happy to say that she is no longer on hospice and continues to thrive. I have over the years had so much excitement watching children learn and their families learning to advocate for their child and themselves.
Recently, I participated in a transition conference for a little boy that I have been working with for about a year. He passed all his screenings. Mom and dad looked at me during the conference and thanked me profusely for helping him. They were so elated when the specialist mentioned that this 2.5-year-old boy was doing some 4 year-old tasks. It brought tears to my eyes when his parents thanked me. When I began working with this child he was completely nonverbal and now he is forming full sentences and can carry on a conversation.
I have amazing memories with all of my clients. The greatest memories are when my nonverbal client say their first word!
The one moment that I will never forget is watching my first kid that I received as a client grow up. I worked with him for 2 1/2 years, and I got to watch him take his first steps and say his first words. I loved getting to help his family along the way. I still keep in touch with the family five years later, and I loved getting to watch him grow up.
When I was working with one of my families, we were singing Old Macdonald Had A Farm as we opened peekaboo farm animals to discover which animal was under the barn door. My client who was not talking much up until this point said “ E-I-E-I-O
“. I cried because I was so proud. It was just a big moment for him and his family. I was incredibly proud of his progress.
Still being pretty new to the company my best moment has to be when my nonverbal kiddo smiled at me when they saw me and took me by my hand.
Being an EI there are so many “moments” that I will never forget. One moment in particular: I received a referral for a family. When I was assigned this family the owner of the company I worked for called me into the office and told me they did not want any one else as the EI for this family but me. I appreciated the confidence the owner had in me to take on this family. The family was from Bangladesh and they spoke Bengali. I scheduled a Family Training home visit out in the community with this family. We met at the food court in the mall. While at the mall the two children were playing in the play area and I was able to sit and talk with dad. I asked dad how his family ended up in North Charleston, SC. Dad told me he won the lottery in his country and they send the family to the states with $10,000.00 American dollars to start a business. So dad said they moved to Charleston to start a cleaning business. Dad spoke very choppy English and mom did not speak English at all. The child I was the EI for understood and spoke English very well. Come to find out her mom taught her English and mom was a teacher in Bangladesh. I was completely floored that mom was able to teach the baby English and not speak it herself. We continued to talk and dad educated me on their Indian culture. Dad then asked me about my (Afro) African-American hair. Very good conversation. It was time for lunch and we all decided to go to Chick Fil-A. Dad insisted I ordered my meal first and then he ordered one combo. Dad paid for the meal. I offered to pay for mine and dad insisted because he said in his country the men pay for meals for the women. I agreed and thanked him. We all sat down to eat and I was wondering why dad only ordered 1 combo meal in addition to my meal. The food arrived and dad opened his combo meal and took a bite of the sandwich and then offered a bite to the older daughter then the youngest daughter then the same sandwich to mom to take a bite. As I am eating my meal dad continued the same process until their meal was gone. Even with the drink dad took the first drink, offered it to the oldest, then youngest then mom. I was in awe. I thanked dad again for lunch and mentioned I was going to get some pop corn from Doc Popcorn. The dad asked me what popcorn was. I asked him if they have ever had it and he said no. So I asked him to walk with me and we can try it. As we were walking towards the popcorn store I was walking on dad’s right had side and the oldest daughter was on dad’s left side and mom was walking behind dad with the baby. I moved over so mom could walk next to dad and dad told me that she has to stay behind him and that he was the head of his house and mom stays behind him. Again I was in complete awe. We continued on to the popcorn store and I ordered what I usually get white cheddar and butter flavored. The dad asked me what was good I told him it was all good. I asked for a sample for Dad to try. Just like when we were eating dad tried it first, then offered it to the oldest, then youngest then to mom. He ended up ordering the same thing that I ordered. The look on everyones face was PRICELESS. We spent 4 hours in the mall and that was such an educational Family Training. I will never forget. To learn about another culture and to see the gratitude on the faces was amazing. As EI’s we are always learning from our families. We make memories in all of the moments we get to share.
I have seen several success stories and can’t choose one moment. I’ve seen a mom who couldn’t afford to buy gas for her car, secure a steady job and begin to make great choices for her family. I have seen a mom, struggling to function, but doing the best she could for her child send a child to college and make choices for her family that lead to a steady income, and a life that she never sought that would be hers. I have seen a mom graduate with her GED and moved to a steady career, modeling rigor and perseverance for her children. I have seen children who were “not supposed to be“ functioning at grade level surpass grade level. I have heard a 2.5-year-old child say his first understandable words. Supporting families and children is a joy!
There is not one moment that I will never forget, but there are many moments with each of my children that are memorable. I think we need to remember that all of our children we serve are unique and we need to celebrate the little milestones they achieve. For example, one kiddo of mine, was able to stand on his own for three minutes with distractions around him, and another kiddo was able to complete a puzzle and speak when she is autistic and is considered nonverbal. I love the kiddos I work with every week.
One of my most memorable EI moments was the day a toddler, took a her first three steps to me. When I began working with her she did not crawl, sit up or walk. It took six months to get her to this point!
One of the most memorable moments I’ve had an EI so far was during one of my visits at a daycare. One girl that I see does not talk, or communicate any at the daycare. During one of my visits, she said 8 to 10 words to me. At one point, she was pretending to rock a baby to sleep and started singing “twinkle twinkle little star.”. One of the teachers was watching, and she could not believe it.
I think one of the moments I will never forget, is working with a toddler child who never spoke and wasn’t making sounds. Mom and I worked with the child every week for Family Training and I still remember receiving a video from Mom, after several months of services, of the child, singing all of her ABC’s. It was such a joy to receive and celebrating with mom was wonderful! There are many more stories like this one, when you can see the connections forming in the lives of these little ones we get to work with. It is truly a rewarding experience. When you see the progress that is made and the impact it has on the family unit!
The look of joy on the child and parent’s face when their child begins to master skills they previously struggled with. I had a client who has been struggling, particularly with speech, and had to have surgery on his ears, and after, his speech just took off! He was pronouncing words that previously had been barely a babble or could hardly be understood, and what seems like overnight he was using new words, trying to make new sounds, and speaking much more clearly. While the surgery helping his hearing is what helped quickly improve his ability and vocabulary, I enjoyed being a part of the process and witnessing him learn and grow and be more expressive, and getting a chance to share in that joy with the family.
I can’t really pinpoint any one moment. I mean I have a seen children who I never thought would walk (Spina Bifida) and they conquered. A nonverbal child who on one sunny day in a park, said,“mmmm” and we cried because it was so close to momma and I had a special angel, who I was privileged to be apart of her life for the short time she was with us. Again, I can’t find just one, but feel blessed to continue to build a library of unforgettable moments.
One of my favorite moments in the I actually started in my classroom during a parent teacher conference. As an early childhood teacher, my job extended well beyond the standards. Our focus was largely on early intervention and service coordination. In addition to the mini other hats, we needed to wear. In this particular conference, I was meeting with a parent of a child in my class who was recently diagnosed with autism and ADHD. During our time together, with tears in her eyes, this Mom shared that she wasn’t able to read or write. She hated that she was never able to finish high school and did her best to hide this weakness of hers from her kids. When they would bring her books to read, she would brush them off. She almost never signed and return papers that needed to be signed, and her children very, very rarely completed homework because she didn’t know how to read. During the time together, I pulled out my laptop and got her set up at a school in our area called the Phoenix Academy, so that she could complete her GED. Her son graduated kindergarten with me that year and she completed her GED the following. Being the link that bridges families to find success is truly the best part of all.
There have been so many special moments from the last few months I’ve been working here. My most special has been going into the home of one of my nonverbal kids, and he starts naming all of his colors out loud.
I worked with a child who was nonverbal for three years. I will never forget the moment he first spoke to me saying “Hi” when I came for my family training visit. To hear his voice for the first time was the sweetest sound in the world. His grandmother and I both teared up, and I felt so blessed to be able to share that moment with her.