Related Services & Care Coordination Glossary

Start with the shared plan

Care coordination is the organized work of connecting people, services, information, decisions, and follow-up around the person's priorities. A practical record names the goal, involved roles, information route, action, owner, due date, status, and next review.

An interdisciplinary team brings together people from different professions or systems. Collaboration does not erase professional boundaries. Each member should identify what they observed, what they recommend, what they can decide, and what requires another qualified professional.

For IDEA Part C, service coordination is an active, ongoing process with one service coordinator serving as the single point of contact. An early intervention service coordination role can help families access evaluation, IFSP work, services, rights information, funding coordination, and transition under the applicable state system.

Understand the therapy roles

Speech-language therapy addresses communication and, within qualified scope, feeding or swallowing needs. Audiology evaluates hearing and related auditory concerns. These roles may help distinguish a communication-learning need from hearing access, speech, language, voice, fluency, or other factors.

Occupational therapy can address participation in daily activities through motor, sensory, environmental, and task supports. Physical therapy focuses on movement, mobility, strength, balance, positioning, and physical participation within PT scope. The CDC autism treatment overview describes several treatment categories at a high level; it is not an individual recommendation or a payer rule.

Mental health counseling may address anxiety, depression, trauma, relationships, identity, coping, or other mental-health concerns within the professional's credential and competence. An ABA provider should refer when a question exceeds behavior-analytic scope and coordinate only with appropriate permission and purpose.

Protect communication and feeding safety

Assistive technology includes devices, equipment, software, and related supports that improve functional access. Augmentative and alternative communication is one part of this wider field. The ASHA AAC practice portal explains that AAC can be aided or unaided and that users should always have access to their communication tools or devices.

ABA staff may help a person use an authorized communication system across daily settings and teach partners to recognize messages. Vocabulary, layout, access method, positioning, and device selection require the right professional and client input.

Feeding therapy is an umbrella phrase that can refer to different services. ASHA's pediatric feeding and swallowing portal distinguishes feeding disorder and dysphagia and describes medical, nutritional, feeding-skill, and psychosocial factors. Concerns such as choking, coughing, breathing changes, dehydration, growth problems, pain, or suspected aspiration need prompt medical or swallowing evaluation rather than an improvised behavioral plan.

Include family and community supports

Social work services may help with resources, systems, counseling, advocacy, discharge planning, or family needs according to the worker's role and setting. Respite care provides temporary support so a family caregiver can rest, attend to other responsibilities, or sustain care.

Availability and funding vary. Medicaid's EPSDT benefit applies to enrolled children and youth under 21 and includes broad screening and medically necessary Medicaid-coverable treatment under program rules. States may include respite in a section 1915(c) waiver. Neither source proves that a particular service, provider, hour, or setting is authorized for one person.

Ask useful coordination questions

Families can ask:

• What question belongs to each professional, and who makes the decision?
• Which goals matter to the person and family across settings?
• What information will be shared, with whom, for what purpose, and under which authority?
• How will AAC, language, mobility, sensory, and scheduling access be protected?
• Which recommendations conflict, and who will convene a focused review?
• What is covered, authorized, available, and affordable, and which parts remain uncertain?

Keep the coordination workload visible. Count open actions by owner and age, missed handoffs, referrals awaiting an appointment, recommendations awaiting client or family review, and services blocked by access or funding. A completed referral means the information reached the intended destination through the approved route. It does not mean the person obtained an appointment, the receiving professional agreed with the recommendation, or a payer approved the service. Record each of those states separately.

A coordination example

Maya is a fictional eight-year-old who uses AAC and has begun coughing during some meals. Her family wants easier school lunches and more independent requests. The BCBA pauses feeding-procedure changes and routes the health concern to the appropriate medical and swallowing professionals. The speech-language pathologist reviews communication access, and the school team considers lunch supports within its authority.

The coordinator records four actions. Three are completed by the agreed review date, or 3/4, 75%. The open medical follow-up stays visible with an owner and due date. That completion rate describes coordination work. It does not diagnose the cough, establish treatment effect, or give one discipline authority over another.

Find ABA care near you. Ask how a provider collaborates across disciplines, protects communication, responds to medical concerns, and keeps family priorities visible.