Collaboration • Consistency • Connection
Keeping Everyone Connected
Your child’s support system may include professionals who each bring valuable knowledge and different perspectives:
- Doctors: Understand medical needs and overall health.
- Teachers: See learning, participation, and progress at school.
- Therapists: Support developmental skills and everyday challenges.
- Other Providers: Offer additional services and resources.
Just as the nervous system connects the body, communication connects the people supporting your child.
By sharing information, everyone gains a clearer picture of your child’s strengths, needs, and progress.
🤝 Working Together
Communication helps providers build on one another’s work without needing to use the same methods.
- Share Progress: Celebrate new skills and accomplishments across settings.
- Recognize Challenges: Understand what may be affecting your child at home, school, or therapy.
- Connect Goals: Find opportunities to practice skills in everyday routines.
- Support Consistency: Share approaches that work while respecting each setting’s responsibilities.
The goal isn’t for everyone to do the same thing. It’s for their efforts to complement one another.
🔗 Examples of Communication Pathways
Different parts of your child’s support system can connect in meaningful ways.
- School ↔ ABA: Share learning goals, observations, and helpful strategies.
- Speech ↔ ABA: Coordinate communication approaches and skill development.
- Medical ↔ School: Communicate health needs, safety plans, and relevant accommodations.
- Parents ↔ Providers: Exchange updates, questions, and observations.
- Regional Center ↔ Family: Discuss services, changing needs, and available resources.
Information sharing should always respect privacy and any required consent.
🌱 Building With Purpose
Having several services doesn’t automatically mean they’re working together.
Sometimes, a shared goal, a quick update, or a simple conversation is enough to strengthen a connection.
Communication helps separate services become a more connected support system.
📌 Your Next Step
Think about two providers whose work overlaps. Would sharing a goal, progress update, or helpful strategy benefit your child?
Start with one connection. You don’t have to coordinate everything at once.
The Hayden Rose Foundation
Families need a map, not another maze.