Reynoldsburg resident Dal Khabatari, shares how the Licking County Board of Developmental Disabilities' Early Intervention program helped his son Dipsan improve his speech.

Dipsan and his family had virtual visits with Speech Therapist Janelle Pickens and Dal was happy to talk about their experience.

Now Dipsan is using lots of new words and Dal suggests that others in the Nepali community should "go for it" if they have questions about their child's development.

LCBDD felt that it was important for Dal to share his experience in Nepali and we are thankful that he was willing to do these video interviews! He also wrote this statement, that we are happy to share:

“Early Intervention is a statewide system that provides coordinated services to parents of young children with disabilities and developmental delays. This organization offers decades of experience working with young children and supports their families to know the child and the things that are important to the families.

I encourage our Nepali community and families to go with Early Intervention and get fruitful and successful results for your child, regarding their developmental stage.

I referred my son to Early Intervention because it provides coordinated services for parents and children with developmental delay. This organization has decades of experience working with young children. It has experienced therapists to guide the child as per the interest and intention of the child.

My child learned many things from this institution, regarding developmental delays, such as speech habits, eating and sleeping.

There are many other places like Nationwide Children’s Hospital also but this Early Intervention is better. I took my child, Dipsan, to both Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Early Intervention, both places.

I’ve come to know that this place is way better than other places because at Nationwide, my child had to be in a single room for 30 minutes and with Janelle’s, with Zoom my child Dipsan was able to go anywhere he likes, sometimes inside, sometimes outside, sometimes on the playground, sometimes in the garage and see different things practically and learn very fast.

Janelle’s the teacher of Dipsan — she used to send different kinds of packages for the developmental through email, books etc.

So I like this Early Intervention better and encourage our Nepali community and families to go with Early Intervention for the developmental delays, disabilities and many other things before 3 years of age of their child.”

You can learn more about Early Intervention or make a referral by calling 1-800-755-4769 or 614-656-3322 or go to https://ohioearlyintervention.org/​​.