Babies Can’t Wait
What is Babies Can’t Wait?
Babies Can’t Wait is Georgia’s early intervention program for infants and toddlers with developmental delays and disabilities and their families.
It is a federally mandated program under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which provides a framework for coordinating developmental, educational, and community support within natural environments for children under three and their families.
- 17% of US children have developmental disabilities, and many more experience delays in language or cognition, which have a significant impact school readiness.
- Less than 50% of these children are identified as having a problem before starting school, by which time significant delays may have occurred and opportunities for intervention may have been missed.
Babies Can’t Wait works closely with physicians and health care providers to identify these children during infancy so that children and their families may receive the support they need.
Why Early Identification and Support?
The brain develops most rapidly during our first three years of life, providing a brief window of opportunity to detect developmental delays in children and address them before they become barriers to healthy development. A significant body of clinical research, conducted in the past ten years, identifies the enormous benefits of intervention services provided to a child during these formative years.