Benefits for Families

The Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) is both a process and a document intended to assist families and professionals in a community in their combined efforts to meet the developmental needs of a young child from birth to age three with special needs.

Benefits to the Family

The IFSP assures families:

• a predictable process for discussing and documenting the child's and family's changing needs
• "family-centered services" in which both the child's needs and needs of the larger family will be considered
• a focus on outcomes deemed most important to the family
• a "living" document that changes and grows as the needs of the child and family change
• a written plan of who will do what, when and where for a 6-12 month period of time
• both family and professional input to the development and implementation of plans
• access to available educational, medical, and social services in a community to help the family and their child
• the expertise of professionals from many disciplines including: physical, occupational and speech therapy, social work, nursing, nutrition, audiology, psychology, child development and education
• coordination of those special services across agencies and professionals in a manner attractive and useful to the individual family.

Benefits to the Professionals

The IFSP allows professionals from different agencies and different professions to:

• engage family members as colleagues in a team effort to help the child develop
• access to family expertise and knowledge about the child's preferences and needs
• share their expertise with the family and with each other
• reduce redundancy of information and service and prioritize efforts
• discuss shared interests for the child and family
• understand the context of the family in which the child is living and growing