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Early Intervention

Early Intervention

The Early Intervention Program at The Dimock Center offers families with children demonstrating developmental delays, or who are at medical or environmental risk, a go-to resource at a critical stage of childhood development. Each family, each circumstance, is unique. Our team works to assess, support and sustain each child’s maximum developmental growth within the context of the life families live every day.

How We Work
Dimock’s team provides Individual, therapeutic Early Intervention services in surroundings that are natural to each child whether it’s at home, in early care, and/or in education settings. These services are tailored to the individual child and family, and may include one or more individual sessions with allied health professionals and developmental specialists.  We base our work in developmentally appropriate play, and provide parents and caregivers play techniques to support ongoing developmental progress between visits.  We offer continuing resource referral and clinical support as well, to help families accommodate the ever-changing needs of their child.

The Dimock Center has a highly qualified team of professional clinicians credentialed through the Department of Public Health in:
– Speech Language Pathology
– Physical Therapy
– Occupational Therapy
– Education Developmental Specialists
– Social Work

Therapeutic Child Group Services
For children ages 18 – 36 months old, there are also Therapeutic Child Group services available for clients at our Roxbury and Allston sites. Staffed by a variety of clinicians, including Social Workers, Educators and Speech Pathologists, these play groups provide a language rich environment in which children play, learn, and grow in their social relationships. Our group offerings change frequently and range from a Developmental Play Group to the unique Parent-Child Yoga class.  If you are interested in these programs, please contact our Early Intervention office.

Referral Process and Eligibility
An initial developmental assessment is required to determine if a child will be eligible to receive Early Intervention services.  This is an at-home, play-based assessment that examines development in the areas of cognition, communication, social and emotional development, motor skills and self care skills.  Children who demonstrate a delay in their skills that meets the current eligibility criteria as set by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health will be eligible to move forward to developing an Individualized Family Service Plan, and beginning services.

To schedule an eligibility assessment for a child, please make a referral or contact Dimock’s Early Intervention team directly.  Referrals are accepted through phone, voice mail, e-mail and fax.

To make a referral, please call the Dimock Early Intervention Intake Coordinator at 617-442-8800, ext. 1414 or send an email to eireferrals@dimock.org.

In order to expedite the process, please include the following information:
– Name of child being referred
– Child’s date of birth
– Reason for referral
– Name of child’s caretaker
– Telephone number and address of caretaker
– Insurance information (if applicable)
– Primary language spoken
– Pediatrician’s name

We are a certified Early Intervention Program through the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.  All services are voluntary.