Accountability and family-centered practices sometimes bump up against each other. The Next-Steps Form (NSF) has increasingly become the record of early intervention visits, so state monitors have been examining what early interventionists are documenting on the NSF. This post describes what early interventionists should report on the NSF and the myths monitors have perpetuated, leading to verbose forms.
The NSF has three primary panels. The left-hand panel is for documenting what we did today and progress on any goals discussed. The right-hand panel is for documenting what we will do until the next visit. The bottom panel is for documenting what the caregiver would like the next visit to focus on.
The left-hand panel can be written with bullets and does not need to be in complete sentences. The panel should state who did what, when. Especially it should distinguish between progress the family discussed (e.g., " William is now sitting by himself") versus what happened during the visit (e.g., "Today, William sat by himself."
