Saturday, March 17, 2012

Research that Benefits

My whole focus (so far) this semester is early intervention. I believe the earlier we intervene with our young children, the better chance they have at having a successful future. I decided to look up research conducted on early intervention and find the benefits--clear benefits and why we should advocate for this. There are many articles online that state the benefits of early intervention. Early intervention works well with children with Autism--in fact "children with Autism have a greater chance for successful outcomes when interventions are started at an early age" (The Help Group, n.d.). Early intervention --for all/any disabilities--also plays a "critical role in brain development" (National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center [NECTAC], n.d.).

I have a beautiful daughter, she does not have any disabilities. This being said I still believe in early interventions--I believe in reading to infants, teaching toddlers their colors and alphabet--I believe in teaching a child from the moment they are born. I think it is vital that other parents' see the importance of early intervention. I am so happy my job requires me to advocate for these services and I am gaining the skills to review research and share the information with my families.

References:
National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center. (N.D.). The importance of early intervention for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. Retrieved March 17, 2012, from http://www.nectac.org/~pdfs/pubs/importanceofearlyintervention.pdf.

The Help Group. (N.D.). The critical role of early intervention in Autism. Retrieved March 17, 2012, from http://www.thehelpgroup.org/pdf/guide/Step_autismEarly.pdf.

5 comments:

Ginny said...

Rebekah.
Early intervention is important. It is wonderful that early childhood is available and is growing. I am thankful for you that your daughter is healthy and you have been able to work with her. I have found in studying more about early childhood that often parents want to help there children. Teachers are quick to complain that parents don't help and we go on and on about this. There are many reasons but sometimes parents truly do not know how. I think we need to be intervention for some of these parents. That could be the risk in research with parents, but the benefits I believe will be worth and hurt feelings or psychological problems this could cause with parents. As you may know my research focus has been to help parents get involved. Both intervention and involvement are key.
Ginny

Patricia Robinson said...

Thanks for sharing your feelings about early intervention. It is extremely important to provide support to children as early as possible in their lives. Which is why all community and educational agencies have to work together. This is why the pediatrition is som important. The pediatrition is the first examiner of the child and has ongoing visits for the first 24 months. The parent and pediatrition must stay in constant communication with each other about the child which would allow for support to begin early if there are delays or needs.

Unknown said...

Rebekah,

I think that it is important for us to help parents understand the importance of early intervention. Myself and the other manager just this Friday had to sit down with the parent of one of our special needs children. Her child is 6 and although he had been doing ok, things were not great for him. He was having trouble at school, at our center and becoming increasingly aggressive. While we had inclusion plans in place at both schools and home environments, it has been necessary to provide more assistance for him. We helped mom complete the necessary paperwork that would provide for us to get more resources in our center to help him. We have several special needs children in our center and as we learn more we are able to help our parents get the assistance they need. We also work hand in hand with the Early Childhood Interventionist to identify children 0-3 that need it.

The Future Starts Today said...

Rebekah,
I think early intervention is a great idea. It is just like teaching a child manners, the early you teach them the more they use and benefit from it. The more and better exposure to any lesson for any child I feel will benefit our society as a whole. Great Post.

Unknown said...

Early intervention is one of the areas that I am really interested in and believe is very pertinent to the success of young children with disabilities. Thank you for sharing the resources.