Question

Share any experiences (professional or personal), knowledge, or understandings you have with Early Intervention. What are your goals for the course and what would you like to understand more fully?

Answer 1

Early intervention is a method of providing services, education and support to young children who are considered to have an identified condition, those who are assessed and deemed to have a suspected physical or mental disorder (with a high likelihood of developmental delay), a current delay or a child who is * at risk of developing a delay or special need which may affect their development. Early intervention has the aim of reducing the impact of the impairment or delay. Services are designed to identify and address the needs of a child in five areas of development, including: physical development, cognitive development, communication, social or emotional development and adaptive development.

Early intervention works to reduce the risk factors in a child's life and to increase the protective factors. We have a good understanding of the risk factors that may affect the development of children, limit future social and economic opportunities and increase the likelihood of mental and physical health issues, criminal activity, substance abuse, or later-life neglect or violence. Such influences occur at various levels within the environment of the child-at the level of the individual, family, community and society-and interact in complex ways. Protective factors are the attributes or circumstances of people, families, societies and culture that can reduce these risks and improve children's and families ' health and well being. Risk and protective factors are often two sides of the same coin: poor parental mental health, for example, can pose a risk to a child's healthy development, whereas good parental mental health will provide protective factor against various issues.

What can Early Intervention Achieve ?

Early intervention strategies also focus on supporting four key aspects of child development – their physical, cognitive, behavioral, and social and emotional development – where it has the potential to make the biggest difference and provide benefits throughout a person's life.

1. Physical development includes the physical health of children, maturation and the presence or absence of a physical disability which provides the basis for positive development in all other areas. Physical effects achieved by early intervention programs include improving birth outcomes, decreasing infectious disease incidence and reducing childhood obesity.

2. Cognitive development requires the learning of speech and language skills by infants, their ability to read and write, their capacity for numeracy and their comprehension of logical problem-solving. Positive cognitive performance is strongly associated with the school and workplace entry success of a child.Usually targeted by early intervention, cognitive results include success on standardized tests, academic achievement, and prospects for higher education and employment after they leave school.

3. Social and emotional learning includes knowledge of children's own emotional needs, and other people's emotional needs.Social and emotional growth is strongly associated with the capacity of a child to form positive relationships with others, and a decreased risk of depression and other results in mental health. Early intervention findings associated with the social and emotional development of children include the pro-social behavior, enhancing self-esteem and reducing the prevalence of the mentally ill

4. Behavioral development includes the ability of children to control and regulate their own actions, attention and impulses. Self-regulatory skills for children are highly associated with their ability to form positive relationships with others, as well as with their school success. Difficulties with self-regulation during adolescence are highly predictive of participation of children in criminal activity during the teenage years . Behavioral outcomes that are often targeted by early intervention include reducing antisocial behavior and crime at school, violence and aggression and antisocial peer affiliation.