What Is a Child Developmental Specialist?
A child development specialist is someone who works with parents of children who are disabled, both mentally and physically. The specialist instructs parents in various therapy techniques and focuses on the modification of the child's behavior.
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Purpose
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The basic purpose of a child development specialist is to further parenting skills and increase the potential for development in preschool-age children who have disabilities. To do this, the specialist assesses children's development and puts public health programs in place that enhance a child's ability to develop properly cognitively, socially, and with their language and motor development skills. Then, as part of a team, the child development specialist monitors the results and effectiveness of these child development services.
There are four levels of child development specialists, which increase in complexity, the amount of responsibility, and the expertise required as they go up. The average annual salary is around $45,000.
Role as Evaluator
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To evaluate a child's mental and physical development, a child development specialist watches and plays with the child and talks to other professionals to get more insight and the child's parents. But it's not just the child that gets evaluated; the child development specialist also needs to determine the parents' ability to understand and be able to implement certain therapeutic techniques that will help the child.
Some of the child development specialist's work is done in collaboration with a team of specialists to ensure the child is getting the best instruction. The child is usually taught either at home or in whatever environment his early intervention team thinks is most appropriate. If the child needs to be transitioned into another program, the specialist helps implement the steps to do so.
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Role as Instructor
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For each child, the specialist develops a specific plan for the parents to use at home, which covers motor, cognitive, language, social and self-help skills. Then the child development specialist teaches the parents the various exercises and activities to do with their child and offers counseling, one on one or in groups, to support the parents. The specialist also instructs the staff at day cares and preschools if required.
Some of the preschool skills the specialist teaches include sign language and color recognition. The child development specialist also keeps records and notes that are confidential and writes reports related to his or her findings.
Knowledge and Skills
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For level 1, a child development specialist is essentially a trainee and kept under close supervision. He or she needs to know what normal child development is, from birth to teenage years, and have child care and parenting skills he or she can teach others. The specialist will work with both professional and nonprofessional groups and needs to encourage their participation in early intervention programs.
For level 2, the child development specialist is working on his or her own in full capacity and needs to be highly flexible in developing programs for families and groups and putting them in place. In addition to level 1 skills, the specialist is expected to assess the development of children and educate parents.
For level 3, the specialist will be involved in advanced duties and acts as a lead worker or consultant to other child development specialists. The child development specialist's knowledge needs to include parenting education and community resources for children and parents. The specialist's written and verbal communication skills are also especially important, as are the ability to take initiative and show good independent judgment.
For level 4, the specialist performs all functions of a child development specialist and is in charge of developing, directing or administering programs and supervising and instructing others. His or her knowledge includes typical child development through to adolescent years as well as community and state-run health and welfare resources geared to children and parents.
Education and Experience
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For level 1, a child development specialist needs a master's degree in child development, early childhood education, or a related field. If the master's degree is in special education without a focus on early childhood, it can be combined with at least 18 hours of work in typical infant and toddler development, positive discipline strategies, family relationships or similar areas.
For level 2, the specialist also needs a year of post-master's experience working in the field. For level 3, he or she needs an additional two years of post-master's experience on top of that. And for level 4, it's one more year of post-master's experience for a total of four years.
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