HeyJaredGrowing in Play
Where science meets sippy cups - and no one pretends to have it all together.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 8
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- Sep 11, 2026
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- Jul 8, 2026
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Cream, Leeks, and Grace (opens the original)
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I started working in early intervention right out of grad school. I was young. And - almost - completely clueless.The idea that people trusted me to intervene with their children when I still didn’t understand how car insurance worked was, in some ways, ridiculous.Growing in Play is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.<input class="email-input" name="ema
What No One Told Me About Working in Early Intervention (opens the original)
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When I accepted my first Early Intervention job, I had no idea what I was getting into.I knew child development. I knew occupational therapy. I’d learned about family-centered care, coaching, routines-based intervention, and the concept of meeting families where they are.I thought the biggest challenge would be helping kids learn new skills.I was so wrong. I had no idea this job was so much more than occupational therapy.Fifteen years later, these are the things I wish someone had told me on my
What I Do In the Seconds After I've Read The Room (opens the original)
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I’ve written before about what I notice in the first fifteen minutes of meeting a new family.The shoes by the door. The toy abandoned halfway through play. Who answers the door and who hangs back. Whether everyone seems relieved I’m there or whether someone looks like they’re still deciding if letting me in was a mistake.Fifteen years in, I don’t have to work very hard to notice those things anymore. After all this time they arrive on their own.But noticing isn’t really the skill. The skill is w
Why Early Childhood Assessment Has Real Limitations (opens the original)
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Every family who goes through an early intervention evaluation ends up holding a piece of paper with numbers on it.A percentile rank. A standard score and a z-score. Sometimes a sentence like “delays in the area of fine motor skills.”Those numbers , understandably, get treated, as fact - as the full picture. They determine eligibility and shape the conversation with a pediatrician. They become the thing a parent repeats to grandma when she asks how the evaluation went.I want to be honest about w
Talking to You Child's Pediatrician About Your Concerns (opens the original)
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You’ve noticed something.Maybe it’s how your two-year-old still isn’t really talking yet, or the way your infant isn’t even attempting to roll. Or maybe it’s something less obvious - a bunch of small things that others don’t really see but all add up to a feeling in your gut.And now you have fifteen minutes with a pediatrician who is also managing an doublebooked schedule, a waiting room, and a kid who just puked in room 4.This is the part nobody prepares you for: the conversation itself. Not th
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