Summit County Health Department celebrates World Autism Awareness Day

Early Intervention Team. Photo: courtesy of Summit County

SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — April 2 is recognized by the United Nations as World Autism Day. The dedicated staff at the Summit County Health Department’s Early Intervention program is taking a well-deserved moment to celebrate before returning to its full workload.

The Early Intervention program partners with the Utah Department of Health to help parents learn about healthy development for their newborns and young children. Working hand in hand with pediatricians and school districts, Early Intervention provides services to children with developmental delays or disabilities.

Jackie Swan has worked for Summit County for the last 27 years as an occupational therapist and as the early intervention director for the past four years.

“Our program and incredible staff like serving children and families in Summit County. We are impacting lives by creating more skills and abilities for the 0-3 population, making the community stronger for future generations to come,” said Swan.

Its referrals for children with autism have doubled since 2021. Summit County has helped fund additional autism training for staff.

Seeing your child reach developmental milestones can be fun and memorable moments. Parents and grandparents often watch for a child’s first steps and words and remember those moments forever. But sometimes, children have delays in their development, such as not babbling, not responding to their names, or avoiding eye contact.

Summit County Early Intervention provides early identification and development services for families of infants and toddlers, ages birth to three.

Some of the services offered include:

• A full assessment of a child’s current health and development status.
• Service coordination among providers, programs, and agencies.
• Strategies to build on family concerns, priorities, and resources.
• Developmental services: occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech/language therapy, nursing services, and others.

These services are provided through the coordinated effort of parents, community agencies, and a variety of professionals. Most services provided by Summit County Early Intervention are provided in the family home or natural environment and community settings such as child care.

Qualifying families have children birth to three years of age who meet or exceed the definition of developmental delays in one or more of the following areas:

• Physical development
• Vision and hearing
• Feeding and dressing skills
• Social and emotional development
• Communication and language
• Learning, problem solving and play skills

Healthcare professionals come to the household, regardless of the state of the home; they strive to meet families where they are in life, literally and figuratively.

To learn more about this important program and what you as a parent can do, call Early Intervention nurse Katie at 435-333-1520.