Educational Resources for OTs working with Infants & Toddlers

I really like working in Early Intervention. Depending on how the state sets up the organization, an EI worker may find themselves pretty isolated with limited training opportunities for improvement. And if you're self-employed, you can't be dropping hundreds of dollars on continuing education classes that may or may not be beneficial. Here are some free online resources that can help the transition, as well as some other books that I have found helpful. (as always, I have no financial relationship with any service unless directly mentioned)

Zero to Three is the national page for infants and toddlers. They have podcasts in English and Spanish, policy based webinars, and free parent resources and guides. They also offer a professional journal ($78/year) with options to pay for CEUs and a yearly national conference.

Pathways.org provides a number of great visual and written resources for families and professionals. They have handouts on a/typical developmental comparisons and the importance of tummy time, among others. They have a free course and videos online to help professionals identify atypical development.

Virginia's early intervention system offers free archived webinars, online modules, and additional resources on their website. Check out their professional development center, and their informative blog articles. They even invite submissions from other authors, so this may be a way for you to expand your writing repertoire. This is one of the best state sites that I have found, but checking other states' pages may turn up many useful resources.

This Prenatal Drug Exposure Handbook(pdf) from a Michigan school district has been very helpful for me when discussing with parents what the potential sequelae of exposure are at different ages and start them with a list of practical tips for the child as an infant, toddler, and older child.

Feeding issues are so prevalent in the infant and toddler ages. One of the best sites that I have found is Your Kids Table, written by an OT with great sensory and behavioral strategies to try to broaden a child's diet.

Early Intervention Support offers many resources, mainly for parents on typical development and frequent issues with the 0-3 population.

Beyond Basic Play is a blog by a PT with great info on development as well as "tips and tricks" to facilitate certain developmental tasks such as catching a ball or moving between positions. Great basic tips to incorporate into practice.

Aimee's Babies is a site that I was not familiar with before. She is an OT who has re-initiated her blog and also sells DVDs and apps for parents to help their child's development. I haven't tried these out personally but they appear to have good face validity.

Info Spot for the Special Tot is run by an OT and mom and has lots of good information and resources on typical toddler issues.

The best book that I have bought has been Transdisciplinary Play-Based Intervention. I feel like this is a great resource for how to address the full scope of skills for infants and toddlers and gave a lot of good ideas on how to adapt activities. Some of this was information I knew or could reason out from school, but learning about ways to embed communication, emotional, and cognitive development was really valuable.

I'm really hoping that my upcoming course will be excellent. It was hard to spend the money knowing that I can count the course for state and national requirements but not for the EI service, but I know I need to get moving on some CEUs before the baby comes. I am really excited about it and excited to have an educational day at all. I am sad to miss my NBCOT and AOTA peeps and the great educational offerings that I usually get there. I truly am an OT Geek and like to learn new things. Please share any resources you have for working with infants and toddlers in the comments section- especially if they are free!