Now more than ever, children with special needs benefit from effective collaboration by their interdisciplinary providers. On a given IEP team, a child may have special education, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy , physical therapy, applied behavior analysis, and more. FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION It is not uncommon for teachers and therapists to have an impromptu quick chat in the hallway. While this gives professionals a moment to touch base, it simply does not offer the time, needed preparation, or quality of a pre-planned meeting. Periodically-scheduled verbal meetings are the evidenced-based standard (Huang et al., 2011). CBS Therapy 1. Schedule designated times for collaboration BEST PRACTICES BEST PRACTICES Be sure to recommend a brief agenda for your aforementioned planned collaboration time. This allows the team to prioritize needs, do any preparatory tasks prior to meeting, and share goals and ideas to make the collaboration time more effective (Hart Barnett & O’Shaughnessy, 2015). The specific role of specialists is not always well-known by teachers, parents or other team members. At the beginning of collaboration, define your role as related to the case. This sets a foundation for collaboration in which other professionals will know when to consult you for ideas and strategies. 2. DON’T FORGET ABOUT THOSE COMMUNICATION SKILLS While we are all very busy, make the most of your time by being fully present in the meeting. This translates to active listening; making eye-contact; asking clarifying questions; and paraphrasing to ensure understanding. 3. HAVE AN AGENDA Embedding services into the classroom routine benefits the student, teacher, and provider! How? Sharing a space results in natural communication opportunities, better understanding of the classroom context for the provider, more carryover of specialist strategies in the classroom, and generalizable skills. 4. Share your role 5. Embed your services www.cbstherapy.com 401-270-9991 peter@cbstherapy.com 845 North Main Street, Providence, RI 02904 For More Information For More Information 6. INCLUDE THE CHILD’S CAREGIVERS Whenever possible, include the child’s parents or caregivers for collaboration. These valuable team members can offer insight onto strategies that they have had success with and often appreciate the ability to communicate with several providers at once. 7 . USE YOUR TOOLS Providers commonly use multi-modal learning strategies with children, but the rest of the interdisciplinary team can benefit from them too. Tap into your intervention strategies and offer modeling, role-playing, coaching, and problem-solving. When a provider or therapist can successfully carryover strategies from another specialist, the child (and the whole interdisciplinary team) benefit.