 Harbor Regional Center provides services to individuals who have intellectual and developmental disabilities, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism, and other conditions that are found to be closely related to mental retardation or to require the same kinds of services. The condition must have occurred before the age of 18, be likely to continue indefinitely, and constitute a “substantial” disability for the person. A disability is “substantial” if it affects three or more of seven major life areas (for example, a person’s ability to communicate or to learn).
The regional center also provides services to infants and toddlers between birth and 36 months of age who have a need for early intervention services, and who meet criteria in one of the following categories:
- Infants and toddlers with developmental delay.
- These babies show a significiant difference between the infant or toddler's level of functioning and the expected level of development for his or her age;
- these delays are seen in one or more of the following developmental areas: cognitive, physical (fine motor, gross motor, vision, and hearing), communication, social or emotional, or adaptive.
- Infants and toddlers with established risk conditions, which are known to have a high probability of resulting in developmental delay.
A new Prevention Program became available in California as of October, 2009 for eligible infants considered to be “at risk” for a developmental disability:
- under the age of three years and
- having two or more problems generally associated with developmental delay or disability, such as low birth weight, prematurity, severe medical problems at birth, and prenatal exposure to drugs or alcohol.
For information on early intervention services at Harbor Regional Center, you may refer to our publication entitled Hand in Hand.
Finally, we provide prenatal diagnosis and genetic counseling services to pregnant women who are believed to be at risk of giving birth to a child with a developmental disability. |
