A Trailblazer in Early Childhood Intervention

Prior to moving to Austin in 1979, Dr. Vargas-Barón began her career as an international educational planner at UNESCO in Paris, France. Subsequently she joined The Ford Foundation Office for Colombia and Venezuela in Bogota, Colombia where she helped design the first international study on the effects of health, nutrition and child development on improving the development of stunted infants and young children living in severe poverty in Bogota, Colombia. This study confirmed the importance of providing early childhood intervention well before school age and led to the development of thousands of early childhood programs in Colombia.

In 1979, Dr. Vargas-Barón brought early childhood intervention (ECI) to Austin, making it one of the first cities in the United States (and the world) to offer ECI services, even before the program existed at the national level. Dr. Vargas-Barón designed and developed the home-based model that we still use at Any Baby Can.

She knows intimately the value of early childhood intervention. In the early days of CEDEN/Any Baby Can, she employed a “Child Find” model of identifying children that needed services and support. She once met a mother who had a 9-month-old child unable to turn over, sit up or lift his head. The baby was clean and fed, but his crib was in a room with no stimulation. Mom knew little about child development but was loving and she wanted to support her child as much as she could. Dr. Vargas-Barón began providing services in the home where she not only worked with the baby directly, but also taught mom how to do stimulating activities with her child. Less than a year later, the child had reached all developmental milestones and later on she learned that he had successfully graduated from high school.

Although our Child Find methodologies have evolved, Dr. Vargas-Barón affirmed, “our commitment to working on a whole family’s well-being has not wavered.” Any Baby Can follows many of the best practices in child development and is informed by international research on education planning and program development. She stated that key components of successful child development and early intervention programs include:

1. High-quality services based on national research with a focus on workforce development, supervisory services, and monitoring and evaluation of all services.
2. Comprehensive services that range from prenatal education and care to early childhood development, parent education, and child and family mental health.
3. Culturally appropriate services that are provided in a family’s home language and with sensitivity to unique family needs.
4. Community-based services that provide programming and connections within a community, and then deliberately expand to outlying communities with the greatest needs.

To deliver the best outcomes, we’re committed to working with highly qualified staff, collaborating with medical professionals, and partnering with community organizations in order to foster the development of a strong society. Dr. Vargas-Barón noted that Any Baby Can has always provided high-quality services and has been dedicated to the people we serve.