Q: What is “Racing Ahead?”

A: Racing Ahead is an infant and toddler stimulation and intervention program that focuses on accelerating the language/communication, social/emotional, cognitive, and motor skills for young children who demonstrate, or are at risk for developmental delays. We assess and treat developmental delays by teaching parents and primary caregivers effective teaching strategies to encourage growth and development. Based on our assessments, we utilize targeted, short-term, research-based intervention strategies to help infants and toddlers with developmental delays quickly get “back on track” in their development. We utilize natural family routines such as bath time and feedings to teach pivotal skills that will enhance the child’s development. We only use treatments that have been demonstrated to be effective through extensive and widely-published research.

Q: How can Racing Ahead help my practice?

A: If you have parents who have a heightened concern about their child’s development, a developmental screening report may be all they need to alleviate their worries. If you have a child about whom you have more significant concerns, we provide developmental assessments without alarming families or creating heightened anxiety. Once the areas of concern are identified we prescribe and provide a course of treatment to accelerate development so that the need for long term interventions are either minimized or completely eliminated.

Q: How do you treat developmental delays?

A: Many developmental delays, if caught early, can be effectively treated by working with parents in their homes. We show parents how to create teachable moments within their normal daily routines to accelerate language development, social/emotional development, and motor skills. Our research-based methods are validated in the empirical literature and have been found to be effective in helping children to catch up with their peers.

Q: How do you measure success?

A: Once the family learns to support their child’s development, we look at standardized developmental scores to gauge the child’s progress. We look for the child to approach a normal developmental trend. Once this occurs, families graduate out of our program and continued services are no longer necessary.

Q: How is what you do different than a referral to a Speech and Language Pathologist?

A: While we use similar methods as those performed by many Speech and Language Pathologists (SLPs) and believe their work is invaluable, we take a more comprehensive, targeted, and intensive approach, focusing on the whole child. We include the development of social/emotional skills, cognitive skills, language/communication skills, and motor skills in our goals. We understand and expect that parents can be good teachers. During multiple weekly in-home visits, we teach parents the strategies of good teaching such as priming, prompting, and modeling, so that they can continue to use them when our involvement is no longer necessary. Progress is measured using ongoing developmental measures, and we expect results within weeks, not months or years.

Q: Will this be a costly referral for my patient?

A: Depending on the severity of the child’s developmental delay, we may see the child anywhere from 2 to 10 hours per week. Once the parents are successful in performing the skills taught by our program, and the child is progressing on a normal developmental trajectory we fade out quickly. Variables that affect cost include: child severity, parent participation and availability, nature of sibling relationships in the home, and co-morbid conditions. In most cases the cost of treatment is under $2,000 per month, and under $6,000 in total. While this may sound costly, many other interventions take many months or years to accomplish compared to what we work to accomplish in a relatively short period of time saving families significant money, time, and energy in the long run.

Q: What patients do you serve?

A: We know that all pediatricians would like to ensure that they are able to screen for any possible developmental delays, but that with all of other concerns of the health care of young children, they simply may not have the time necessary to do so thoroughly. We see children for developmental screenings and evaluations to support the practices of pediatricians. We work with children with mild global delays, mild speech delays, children at risk of developmental delays, and children with more severe developmental disorders (e.g., autism).

Q: Who conducts the assessments? What are their credentials?

A: All screenings and assessments are conducted by psychologists and clinicians who specialize in early childhood development and intervention. Please visit our website for more information on the extensive experience and background of our staff members.

Q: How do you determine who really needs support services and who doesn’t?

A: We don’t think every child has autism. Likewise, we don’t disregard the minor concerns of parents. We recommend and provide only those services that are necessary for the child to achieve a normal developmental pathway. If no services are necessary, then no services are recommended. If services are needed, we provide targeted efficient services that can be faded out as quickly as the child progresses. We want to have long-term relationships with our clinical partners and other professionals. We do this by providing superior services with high integrity earning the trust of the communities we serve.

Q: Does it really matter if a child starts getting support as soon as possible or can I wait until they are older or until they are eligible for services from the school district?

A: Early intervention is supported by the research literature as being critical to changing the developmental trajectory of a child who is at risk for a developmental disorder. The earlier children receive treatment, the better their prognosis and the less likely they are to need services in the future. In addition, infants and toddlers who do not receive early intervention are often not equipped to succeed in the school environment.

Q: What is involved in a screening, how much does it cost, and how quickly can I get the results back to my office?

A: We utilize standardized assessments and clinical observation to determine each child’s developmental levels. The screening can be done relatively quickly, usually with a 1-2 hour visit.. Our screening involves both parent interview and observation of the child engaged in play activities. The cost of the screening is $250.00. We provide immediate feedback to families and send the completed report to your office immediately.

Q: If a more thorough evaluation is recommended, can you provide that, and what is the process?

A: Yes, we provide full evaluations for developmental delays and disorders. The process is simple. If you observe clear developmental delays in your office, we can immediately do a full developmental evaluation. If you or the parents are uncertain about the presence of a delay, we can simply provide a developmental screening report to you and the parents. If during the screening we find that a more thorough evaluation is necessary to rule out any developmental disorders, we will set up an immediate follow-up appointment with your patient for a full evaluation. Our office will then provide you and the family a report with our results and recommendations for intervention within 2 weeks of the completed evaluation.

Q: How do I make referrals to you?

A: Simply provide your patient’s parent with our contact information to set up an appointment. We will make every effort to see your patient within 2 weeks of their initial contact with our office.

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Please contact us at (877) 815-RACE (7223) or info@racinghead.org if you have questions about our services.

We hope to be the developmental partner to your pediatric practice.