How to rock your Early Intervention interview
Whether you’re looking to land your first or last Early Intervention position, read this blog post to get prepared for that important Early Intervention interview. Whether you’re an Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist, Speech Therapist or other Early Childhood specialist, you’ll find important tips and information below to make sure you rock your next interview and land the job of your dreams!
Do you have a passion for working with babies and toddlers?
Do you love supporting parents with young children in their natural environments?
Maybe you’ve already been working in the field of Early Intervention but it’s time to look for another position.
Whether you’ve never held an Early Intervention position or you’re looking for a different position, this blog post will talk about how to prepare you for some questions that may be asked of you and which questions you should ask your future employer to make sure the job is the right fit for you!
But first, let’s review some general tips for making sure your Early Intervention interview goes smoothly.
These may seem basic but having been in the shoes of the interviewer, it’s always good to have reminders!
General tips for a successful Early Intervention interview
Arrive 10 minutes early. Early bird gets the worm!
Make a trial run to the interview site to ensure you don’t get lost along the way! (I speak from experience on this one…needless to say I didn’t get the job!)
Business casual dress is usually preferred for most clinical positions. A suit could be a better fit for a management position.
If you don’t know something, don’t fake it! Potential employers would rather see honesty and for you to demonstrate an interest in learning something new by asking for resources on how you could learn more about this topic.
Smile, be yourself and have fun! Remember, this is about seeing if this job is a good fit for you too!
Early Intervention Interview Questions to ask the employer
1. Is this position a salaried position or contract (1099)?
Will you have taxes taken out of your paycheck or will you be responsible for reporting your earnings at the end of the year?
2. How will I be paid? Are you paid hourly or on a fee-for-service?
Since working in Early Intervention entails working with young children and families you need to be very flexible and often there will be numerous cancellations and no shows.
If you are a contract therapist, you will typically NOT get paid if families cancel or no show you.
If this is a contract position, you’ll also want to know if you are paid for your travel time, documentation time and for meetings.
3. Am I expected to attend IFSP meetings?
IFSP meetings usually take place every 6 months. You will want to know if you are expected to attend those meetings and if you’ll be paid for your time. Also, do these meetings count towards the child’s IFSP minutes on those months.
4. What are the daily documentation requirements? Will I need to bill insurance/Medicaid on my own?
Billing can take a long time…you’ll also want to know if you get paid for documentation/billing time.
5. What evaluation tools are used for assessment?
Who supplies the evaluations, materials and scoring records?
Some common evaluations used in Early Intervention may be the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales (PDMS-2), the Battelle Developmental Inventory, Hawaii Early Learning Profile (HELP), Infant/Toddler sensory profile, and the Developmental Assessment of Young Children (DAYC-2).
Many agencies also use some form of a parent interview or the Routines Based Interview (RBI)
Assessments and scoring forms can become very costly. Good to know if you’ll need to budget for this ahead of time.
6. Are there progress notes that need to be written? How frequently?
Again, is this time billable?
7. Will I be reimbursed for continuing education?
How much per year? What documentation is required to qualify for reimbursement?
8. Will I be able to shadow other therapist or gain mentorship?
Extremely important for both new and experienced therapists. Each setting is different and even if you feel confident with your discipline specific skills, it’s important to see the day-to-day process as well as any tips from seasoned therapists.
It was extremely helpful for me at my last Early Intervention position when I shadowed other disciplines with some of the kids that were going to be on my caseload.
9. What are the caseload expectations? How many children am I expected to see in a day/week? How long are the sessions?
Typically, Early Intervention sessions are one hour in length. Frequency should be established with the family based on their concerns and how frequently they feel they need to be supported or will want new strategies/ideas. Frequency in Early Intervention should not be based solely on percentage of the child’s delay.
10. What are the driving expectations how many miles per day or what is the territory expected to be covered by one therapist?
This will vary greatly from place to place but it’s good to know ahead of time what’s expected and if it’s realistic based on your traffic patterns and coverage radius.
11. Are there staff meetings or other opportunities to discuss cases with other therapists or supervisors or receive mentorship?
Mentorship is essential for all practitioners in Early Intervention due to the nature of the position of an Early Interventionist working in isolation in families homes.
Early Intervention Interview questions from the employer
1. What interests you about working in the Early Intervention?
Your answer should show your enthusiasm for working with not only the child but the entire family unit. Any relevant life experience could also by a talking point here.
2. What are your time management strategies?
The nature of the Early Intervention system promotes practitioners to be very independent. Being able to schedule your clients, be flexible, and have efficient strategies to provide clear and consistent communication with families and other team members is critical to your success.
3. Can you explain part C of IDEA?
Early Intervention services are covered for infants and toddlers under the age of 3 under the IDEA. Early Intervention is available in each state in the US and is coordinated by a state’s lead agency. Click here to read more about Part C.
It’s also a good idea to visit your state’s lead agencies website before your interview to read more about their referral process.
4. What is your knowledge of the parent coaching model? Have you used it before?
The use of a parent coaching model is best practice in the world of Early Intervention. Many agencies have already adopted this model of service delivery and many others are transitioning to using this model.
A great resource to learn more about the coaching model is this book by Sheldon and Rush.
5. Do you have experience writing IFSP outcomes?
Writing IFSP outcomes are different from writing goals in the school or clinic environment. Goals should be highly individualized and family focused. Outcomes should also be based on the child’s participation in a naturally occurring routine and functional, not based on just achieving the next developmental skill.
6. What types of evaluations have you used or are you familiar with using for children in Early Intervention?
Some common evaluations used in Early Intervention are discussed above.
7. Do you have experience doing co-visits with other disciplines?
Early Intervention is a very holistic area of practice. It is very important that you can collaborate with other disciplines and team members to ensure that families are given consistent information and that strategies are consistent between providers.
8. Give an example of how you would embed an intervention strategy into a family's daily routine.
If you don’t have experience with this yet, think about ways you could work on fine motor, gross motor, sensory, communication, self-care skills during naturally occurring routines.
For example, instead of recommending that a family perform tummy time each day on the floor for 5 minutes…you could explore how tummy time could be over mom’s lap while she reads books to her baby before naptime.
9. What is your experience working with children with sensory processing difficulties/feeding delays/autism?
As Occupational Therapists, these are 3 things that we see frequently in the world of Early Intervention. Having knowledge of resources and ways you could be supported with these clients are important is you are not already well versed in working with these clients.
10. What is your comfort level with giving families strategies to try around overall child development?
Again, Early Intervention is a very holistic area of practice. Many states are now following a primary provider model where one discipline is the most frequently provided service. Having a basic understanding of all areas of development and basic strategies to support overall child development is an important aspect of the job.
It’s also important to know the scope of your practice and when it’s necessary to consult with other disciplines and when to request additional services for families.
11. Tell us about a time where you had to have a difficult conversation with families.
Employers want to see how you manage conflict and tools you possess with resolving it. Challenging families are bound to come up when you work in Early Intervention…many of these families are in crisis and are handling high levels of stress.
I know the job market was a little slow this past year, but there’s one thing for sure…
Small children and their families will be needing our help again and my feeling is as the year progresses we will start to see an increase in referrals as the world starts to open back up.
Finding Occupational Therapy candidates to work in Early Intervention was always challenging at my last position since it seem so to be a catch 22 to land a job in Early Intervention.
Employers wanted experienced practitioners, but as a new practitioner it was hard to find employment that would offer good mentorship.
Often in Early Intervention, you are the sole provider in client’s homes, traveling from one door to the next leaving little time to connect, learn and grow from other therapists.
A new way to gain mentorship and support in your Early Intervention practice
This dilemma is what led me to create The Therapy Village!
The Therapy Village is a place where Occupational Therapists and Occupational Therapy Assistants working in the world of Early Intervention could come together to learn new skills, collaborate with each other, gain mentorship and valuable resources all from the comfort of home!
This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to broaden your learning in a variety of specialty areas and increase your confidence as an Early Intervention OT!
Check out all the amazing Therapy Village membership benefits here!