Occupational therapy is a service provided to children and adults experiencing changes in their ability to engage in everyday activities as a result of illness, injury, trauma or other disability. Occupational therapy focuses on helping individuals develop the skills needed to carry out their activities of daily living. More specifically, to become self-sufficient in all aspects of their daily lives. As an infant grows older, new occupational roles and expectations are recognized. When typical development is interrupted or does not occur, early intervention may be necessary. When implemented at an early age, occupational therapy can set the groundwork for a child's progress and ability to function productively and purposefully throughout life. When working with a child with disabilities, an occupational therapist must develop a treatment plan utilizing a certain technique or model. Implementing a family-centered approach to treatment services, as opposed to a professional-centered model, teaches the parents to focus on their child's positive qualities, which in turn facilitates a stronger relationship between the parents and the child. A partnership is established early on between the professional and the family and the strengths and capabilities of the family are emphasized. Parents are seen as senior partners who are given the ability to work with the professional in developing and delivering their child's treatment plan. A family-centered approach gives parents the skills necessary to work with their children long after services have ended. Utilizing a family-centered approach to therapy services ensures the overall success and well being of the family, as a whole. This creative project focused on the development of an Individualized Family Service Plan and Treatment Plan, created using a family-centered approach to therapy services in occupational therapy, from birth to three years of age .

Minimal information exists concerning dual language acquisition of three-year-old dual language learners (DLLs) during their first school experience and first systematic exposure to English. This study examined the Spanish and early English language development of young DLLs in the context of standardized measures and a story retell task. Participants included eight Spanish-English DLLs (7 females, 1 male, M age = 3 years, 8 months) attending Head Start, and their classroom teachers. Outcome measures for the children included composite and scaled scores on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool-2 Spanish (CELF Preschool-2 Spanish; Wiig, Secord & Semel, 2009) and the parallel English measure (CELF Preschool-2; Wiig, Secord & Semel, 2005), and measures of lexical (NVT, NNVT, TNV, NW, NDW, TNW and TTR) and grammatical (MLUw) development. Proportion of classroom teachers' and paraprofessionals' Spanish, English and mixed language use was measured to contextualize the children's learning environment with regard to language exposure. Children's mean standardized Spanish scores at school entry were not significantly different from their mean scores in May; however, an increase in total number of verb types was observed. Children's English receptive, content, and structure mean standardized scores in May were significantly higher than their scores at school entry. Children were exposed to a high proportion of mixed language use and disproportionate amounts of English and Spanish exclusively. Children's performance was highly variable across measures and languages. The findings of the current study provide a reference point for future research regarding language development of three-year-old Spanish-English dual language learners.