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Family Infant Toddler (FIT) Program
Vision, Beliefs and Core Values
Vision and Beliefs
All families of infants and toddlers with or at risk for a developmental delay receive quality early intervention supports and services that are:
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Accessible to all groups and communities throughout New Mexico;
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Respectful of individual and family choices, priorities and cultural diversity; and
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Family-centered by working in partnership with families within their everyday routines, activities and places
Core Values
Adapted from the Portage Project, 1999
1. Family Centered Practices
- The family is viewed as the unit of service delivery.
- Families have the power to make all important decisions regarding their child and family. Families need data and information from experts in the field to help them make informed choices and decisions.
- Services are provided in ways that strengthen the family’s ability to meet their needs and the needs of their child.
- Intervention practices respond to family-identified priorities.
- Intervention practices support family values and lifestyles.
2. Relationship as the Focus of Work
- All early learning takes place in the context of relationships with primary caregivers.
- The relationship between the parents and the providers is the vehicle through which intervention and support are most effectively offered.
- Early interventionists work in partnership with parents. Their methods support – not supplant – the caregiving role of the family.
3. Strengths-Based Approach
- Interventionists look for “sparks” – interactions between parent and child that are growth promoting, satisfying and pleasurable to both.
- Identification of sparks and strategies parents use to repair those times when the interaction is not “sparking”, sometimes called misattunement, are as important to the evaluation process as is the identification of developmental strengths and needs.
- Interventionists use opportunities to help along the power of “sparks” by using opportunities to provide information to parents that will help to repair misattunement.
4. Reflective Practices are used at all Levels of the Organization
- Interventionists stand back and think about what they are seeing and hearing from families so that they can consider a variety of possibilities for providing services that will support families.
- Interventionists consider what they are personally bringing to a situation and how that perspective may affect their observations and interpretations of that situation.
- Reflection occurs at individual, team, supervisory, programmatic and interagency levels.
5. Ecological Framework
- Interventionists take a broad look at the “big picture” to consider what is happening in any given situation.
- Interventionists use effective interviewing and observation techniques to better understand the child and family’s situation; i.e., biology of the child and caregiver, culture, family history, immediate life circumstances.
- Services are delivered where the child lives, learns and plays within the context of the family’s everyday routines and activities in order to support the natural flow of family life.
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DDSD Services Overview