INDIVIDUALIZED FAMILY SERVICE PLAN AND ITS DIFFERENCES FROM INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATION PROGRAM.

It is important to diagnose developmental disabilities in the development of children earlier and make necessary interventions in order to decrease the problems that may arise in the future. In this scope, the importance of early intervention practices arises. The early intervention involves the services provided in order to strengthen the parents’ capacity to support their children's development and development of infant and young children between 0-3 years old who have developmental delay or risk of developmental delay. Early intervention services are characterized by the properties which are cooperative, family centered and meeting both child’s and family’s needs. Individualized Family Services Plan (IFSP) is the most important document that has these features and provides systematic application of early intervention services. IFSP is a written document which provides the main parts of early intervention services and is also a complete family plan with parents whom is the main participant in early intervention services. Program handles child completely and evaluates child’s and family’s improvement together. By this perspective, it differs from the Individualized Education Program (IEP). IEP is a base document for planning and documenting special education services for school-aged children with special needs between 3-22 years old. When the definition of IEP is evaluated, it is seen that IEP focuses on the education contents. Unlike IEP, IFSP focuses on the child together with the environment (physical and social), developmental needs and all family members. In this study, generally, the content of IFSP which has critical importance in early intervention practices and the aspects which differs from IEP are discussed.