News

EDIS provides military parents help in meeting children’s developmental milestones

  • Published
  • By Holly L. Birchfield
  • 78th ABW/PA
Not long ago, three-year-old Elijah Hansen couldn't say a word. Now, he's talking up a storm.

His mother, Angel, a hearing impaired stay-at-home mother of three whose husband, Senior Airman Seth Hansen, works in the 78th Comptroller Squadron, said she owes her hearing impaired son's success to the Educational Developmental Intervention Service program.

EDIS, as the program is commonly called, is a Department of Defense program that helps active-duty military members' special needs children from birth to 3 years of age living in base housing by providing free in-home physical, speech, occupational, and cognitive therapies to help them reach their age-appropriate developmental milestones.

Mrs. Hansen, who was referred to the program by a friend who had benefited from its services, said EDIS has made a remarkable difference in her son's life.

"They have provided speech therapy two days a week," she said. "Christie (his speech therapist) comes into our home and works with him in his toy room in his own environment. He wasn't talking when she first started working with him. Now, he has full sentences and holds conversations. It has been a tremendous difference in having her come."

Elijah is just one of many children helped by EDIS since the program's inception at Robins in 1992.

Lee Ann Scott, EDIS coordinator at the Robins Mental Health Clinic, said the program helps children reach new heights.

"It's an early intervention program to try to catch them up and give them all the advantages that we can before they start school," she said. "I work with the parents to identify any developmental delays and then we can provide support in the speech and language, and occupational therapy, physical therapy, and I also work with children to develop their cognitive needs."

Ms. Scott said once a family is referred by their pediatrician or comes to EDIS through a self-referral, she conducts an in-depth evaluation of the child and develops an Individual Family Service Plan based upon their needs.

"We talk about the services we can provide, the resources the parents have, and together with the parents, we make a plan to try to remediate the developmental delay," she said. "Early intervention is the key to children being successful when they start school. If we wait until they're three or four and in school, we've lost so much time there. The early intervention helps children maximize their potential and helps kids get caught up so that they're not so far behind when they start school."

While EDIS does not directly service active-duty military families who live off base, Ms. Scott said those families are referred to similar community resources.

Maj. Wendy Travis, Mental Health Flight commander in the 78th Medical Group at Robins, said the program is a true testament to the level of commitment the Air Force has to its families.

"I think the EDIS program is a dispensable resource to our active-duty families who have dependents with special needs, especially those children who are not yet school age and need support resources to reduce the negative effects of the developmental or educational effects they may be experiencing," she said.

For Elijah, the future is much brighter. The toddler now has hearing aides in both ears and he's able to communicate and better connect with the world around him. All of which is preparing him for his start at Robins Elementary School next week.