Just For Me
 

Families are valued team members in the Child Outcomes Summary (COS) process.

First, take a few minutes to watch the video below titled, Engaging Families in the COS Process. In the video, the team is talking about Cade, a three-year-old with developmental delays. Professionals engage Cade’s mom in a conversation about Cade’s functional skills in the 3 outcome areas. As a team, they continue to talk about how Cade is functioning in relationship to his same-age peers. Notable in this video are the actions and behaviors of team members. Consider the following questions:

1. How do professionals elicit functional information from families?

2. How does each team member, including the family member, contribute to the conversation?

3. How are discussions about the child's strengths and needs anchored in age-established development?

4. How do team members work together to collaboratively determine the COS rating?

Next, focus on the first question above: How do professionals elicit functional information from families? Revisit the Child Outcomes Table: Activity Sheet from Session 1 (also available in the Resource box to the right). In the second row of the table, list two questions in each outcome area that will help engage families in learning more about the child's strengths and needs in that area.

Reference

AUTHOR. (2012). Engaging families in the COS process [video]. Developed by the Maryland State Department of Education, Division of Special Education/Early Intervention Services and the Johns Hopkins University, School of Education, Center for Technology in Education. Available from http://olms.cte.jhu.edu/olms2/128983