Home visits–what’s the point?

What was the point?

My foster babies went back home. I miss them, but I am happy for their family to be reunited. Now that my life is no longer one giant Early Intervention session, I have more time to write. 

I have mentioned before, and I will mention it again; this experience has changed the way I work with families in several ways. The most obvious one that comes to mind today is…

I get to the point.

Me as a parent

Now that I have experienced home visitors on a regular basis, I understand in a much more real way– a parent’s time is precious. We had a therapist come work with our child once a week. Social workers came at least once a month. Other team members popped in from time to time too. Sometimes I felt like there was no point. Sometimes I had a headache, and I was tired, and I just wanted to watch “The Little Mermaid” with the kids for the 1000th time. But no, the baby had a therapy session. We had to tidy up. I had to power through and get this over with. On days like that, I really resented giving my time to a therapist or a social worker if it seemed like there was no point. Please don’t misunderstand. The team of professionals I worked with were great! I am certain they had a point. I just didn’t know what it was. 

Me as a special instructor: 

These parents are dealing with a child with a disability! It is chaos! They may or may not have been willing to enroll in this program in that chaos, but they did. They have agreed to allow me, a Special Instructor (a role they probably have never heard of before), to come to their home for one hour each week. This is an incredible responsibility. 

If I am not communicating my intent at each session, it will appear there is no point in me being there. If it appears there is no point in me being there, they will be less likely to keep their appointments. Suddenly there will be schedule conflicts with hair appointments, errands to run, or family coming over. If they don’t keep their appointments, nobody is getting served. Nobody is benefiting.  

Before…

I used to show up with a general plan and “follow the child’s lead” in play and model learning strategies as I went along and coached mom during and after as needed. I was in my own head making notes and observations, which I would write down later and use to plan other play sessions. In my own head, I was strategizing and thinking and maybe not being as clear to the parent as I could have been. I could have been better. 

After…

Now I go with a specific purpose in mind for each session. When I arrive, I share that purpose to ensure we are working toward a common goal. Sometimes things don’t go according to plan. The child’s attitude or motivation may go in a completely different direction. In that case, I’ll communicate what I’m thinking instead of keeping it to myself, “

What was the point?

At the end of each Early Intervention session, I recap, thinking, “What was the point?” I don’t leave until I let the family know the purpose of the visit. Being on the other side of Early Intervention, I realized that in those past home visits, I may have known what my intent was, but they did not. Now I make sure we both know.