We had engaged early intervention (SLP and OT) services prior to adopting my daughter from China, expecting we'd need to catch up in language and development issues since she was coming from a a very poor and rural orphanage with little medical or educational care. At 1YO, she had no language (we quickly discovered that she was profoundly deaf) and was not yet crawling, and so EI services were scheduled starting a week after she was home from China.
Our daughter quickly developed mobility with little need in the way of OT, so we focused EI services on an SLP working to develop language (ASL). We had a whole lot of coverage, 3X weekly ASL based parent infant groups at a school for the deaf plus individual 1 on 1 sessions 3X weekly with an ASL fluent SLP. We continued these services until my daughter turned 3YO, when she began preK at the same school. When my daughter received CIs, our EI SLP directed her own professional development, becoming knowledgable about CIs and the very different issues and language development steps we were to expect. This EI SLP, the same we had worked with from the time my child was 1YO, started employment at the school for the deaf at the same time my daughter started, and so continued working with my daughter throughout her PreK1, PreK2 and Kindergarten years.
I can't say enough good things about EI services we received: it was professional, thorough, and flexible, adjusting to my daughter's needs. Laurie, our EI SLP, has been a trusted source of learning for my daughter and for us, as parents. I think EI is a tremendous resource, one that I had been entirely unaware of prior to my daughter's arrival.