Introduction
Based on various scholars and articles reviewed for the assignment, early intervention is a general term used to define or describe the enormous services and support available to young children or babies with disabilities or developmental delays. Early intervention services can be of different forms, such as speech therapy and physical therapy, just to mention a few. Additionally, the early intervention programs focus on giving effective and timely help to children at risk of developing delays and those facing various challenges already. The programs have functioned effectively by addressing the unique needs of each child and providing individualized support and services tailored toward that specific need. Furthermore, early intervention has, for the longest time now, portrayed its significant and positive impact on the development of children with disabilities and also those with delayed development problems. Despite the many benefits people have yielded from early intervention programs, other aspects have yet to be well explored, hence the need for this paper to dig deeper into those areas. Early intervention has shown different benefits in improving social, emotional, physical, and cognitive factors among children in need. For this particular article, despite the crucial benefits of the programs, we will explore some forgotten or unfamiliar aspects of the programs, such as lack of or inadequate support for children in childcare settings and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities. Some factors that constitute the lack of support include; funding, over-medicalization, inadequate training for healthcare providers, and stigmatization aspect to mention a few. By perfectly studying the forgotten aspect of early intervention programs, we wish to inform and educate the public in conjunction with government organizations on the challenge and recommend long-lasting solutions for future generations.
How There Has Been No Support for Children in Childcare Settings and Pre-Kindergarten Children with Disabilities
Early intervention programs are put in place to help or, in other words, provide services and support for young children, including the mentioned category, to grow and achieve their full potential. In the past few years, according to an article by the National Library of Medicine, there has been increased concern about providing adequate support for children in the childcare setting and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities. Support in this article has been used as a general term that includes financial, mental, and resources or material assistance vital for the proper development of children in childcare systems and pre-kindergarten children living with disabilities. Additionally, for the children to grow and attain their full potential, childcare providers are vital in providing support and services for the mentioned groups of children (Hirpa, 2021). Supporting the healthcare providers who deal directly with the children in the childcare setting and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities mean directly supporting the children. For the past few years, healthcare providers have not received proper training in dealing with children. Lack of proper training and the right resources is one of the major issues that must be solved. For the past few years, it has been evident that healthcare providers do not portray the right skills in helping and interacting with children in childcare settings and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities.
Additionally, healthcare providers must be equipped with the right skills and knowledge, termed the right expertise. For some time now, the issue of expertise has been a challenge, creating misunderstandings between the children in the childcare setting and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities. In the current world, technology continues to evolve rapidly. Healthcare providers needing the proper resources in various institutions dealing with children have been challenged and show a lack of support. Because of the mentioned aspect, healthcare providers are rendered in the position of not being able to accommodate and support the diverse needs of children in childcare settings as well as pre-kindergarten children with disabilities and hence rendering them at risk of not attaining their full potential. Additionally, to fully understand how there is no support or no adequate support for children in childcare systems and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities, the healthcare providers are not getting the right training (Hutchon et al., 2019). The pre-kindergarten children with disabilities and children in the childcare system require specialized skills, which healthcare providers require specialized skills to facilitate proper understanding between the two parties.
In addition, inadequate support for children in the childcare unit and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities can be inadequate funding. Adequate funding means the ability of institutions and healthcare providers to access resources and services that will make the children’s development successful. According to the article by the National Library of Medicine, children in childcare and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities require more frequent and intensified care services than other children. Based on the above statement, it is important to pay more attention to the funding aspect of the treatment and development programs for the target children in this article (Bigras et al., 2021). Even though the government and other non-governmental organizations have continuously invested in ensuring that children in childcare systems and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities get the right services through different funding initiatives, there is a gap to be filled by the right parties involved.
Limited involvement of the parents and close relatives in some early intervention programs is the other aspect of limited support for children in childcare systems and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities. To shed more light on the mentioned aspect, some programs are designed in such a way that there is limited parent or guardian involvement, hence creating limited and, in other instances, preventing the proper parental understanding of the children’s needs. The overall success of early intervention programs under this paper is helping the children in the childcare systems and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities to attain their full potential. With parental involvement and limited parental involvement in early intervention programs, it can benefit the programs’ overall objective. Parents play a vital role in ensuring the right understanding of their children’s needs and proper identification of their children’s strengths and weaknesses. As witnessed in the recent programs, parental involvement has been limited and, in the end, translates into frustrations. To sum up the issue of parental involvement, healthcare providers need help to develop the right and personalized interventions for children. There has been limited support for children in childcare systems and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities.
Overmedication or overreliance on medication is the other aspect that can be interpreted as contributing to the larger picture of lack of support for children in childcare systems and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities. The entire problem of overmedication arises when the caregivers tend to depend more on medication rather than developing personalized or tailored support for the children’s development (Drake, (2019). To understand the aspect more, the example of prescribing medication to children in childcare systems and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities instead of developing personalized programs can come in place. For example, if a child demonstrates challenging acts, medications can be used as a fast solution. However, understanding the actual cause of the acts would be more appropriate, demonstrating some support for the children. In simple terms, early intervention programs are not showing enough support for children in childcare systems and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities because they depend more on prescribing medications rather than conducting research and providing support accordingly.
Recommendations
Supporting the children in childcare systems and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities can be demonstrated in various ways. In this article, we will recommend various ways to demonstrate support for the mentioned groups of children. Firstly, the issue of not adequately funding institutions and healthcare providers can be solved in the following ways. Advocating for proper funding by the relevant authorities. Parents and other stakeholders must develop ways to increase funding programs (Movahedazarhouligh, (2021). Participating in protests and rallies that call for increased funding can be a way in which institutions can attain funding freedom. Additionally, the early intervention programs can receive donations by creating good relationships and partnering with local businesses and non-governmental organizations. In other instances, resources can be received via volunteer support. Seeking grants is the other way of solving the funding problem. Additionally, proper spending Behaviours and disciplines need to be promoted to avoid the problem of funds or resource mismanagement.
Parental involvement is vital for children in childcare systems and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities’ development towards attaining their full potential. Overcoming the challenge of not adequately involving parents in early intervention programs calls for combined efforts from the parents, healthcare providers, and institutions (Bricker et al., 2022). Increased parental involvement can be attained by establishing proper communication channels for all the parties involved in the early intervention programs. Increased communication can occur by embracing the current technology and developing all parties-based programs. Creating parent workshops and availing training sessions for them is the other way to solve the parental involvement challenge. The parents can be encouraged to engage in parent-healthcare confessions or communications where their children’s goals can be discussed together with developing programs that are well tailored to individual child’s needs.
Additionally, healthcare providers need to be equipped with high-quality skills that enable them to perform and offer their services effectively and adequately. Availing modern resources and availing learning facilities for healthcare providers can be one of the various ways of supporting the almost forgotten side of early intervention. Additionally, healthcare providers who possess the right skills will have a better understanding of how to help children in childcare systems and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities (Movahedazarhouligh, (2021). In conjunction with the issue of overmedication, when the healthcare providers are well knowledgeable, it means that they will effectively solve the challenge of overdependence on medication alone. By providing adequate training to the medical experts, good relationships can be attained between the parents and the children receiving the services, hence ensuring they cget the right support they need to attain their full potential.
Conclusion
In conclusion, children in the childcare systems and pre-kindergarten children have not been receiving the right support as discussed in this paper. The issue of inadequate funding and resource allocation, challenges of parental involvement and overmedication are among the few challenges I have discussed in the article and given various recommendations on how to solve the challenges. Some of the possible solutions as discussed include calling for increased funding programs through seeking grands and getting donations from good partners. Additionally, providing the right and modern form of training is the other form of support that can be offered to the early intervention programs. The other solutions as discussed above is encouraging parental involvement in the programs. By working on the issues of concern and encouraging the recommendations the children in childcare systems and pre-kindergarten children with disabilities can get the missing support in their development programs. It is the right time to acknowledge the benefits of early intervention programs, and it is vital to make the right steps towards providing the right support for the children to attain their full potential.
References
Bigras, N., Lemay, L., Lehrer, J., Charron, A., Duval, S., Robert-Mazaye, C., & Laurin, E. I. (2021). Early childhood educators’ perceptions of their emotional state, relationships with parents, challenges, and opportunities during the early stage of the pandemic. Early Childhood Education Journal, 49, 775-787. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10643-021-01224-y
Bricker, D. D., Felimban, H. S., Lin, F. Y., Stegenga, S. M., & Storie, S. O. M. (2022). A proposed framework for enhancing collaboration in early intervention/early childhood special education. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 41(4), 240-252. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0271121419890683?journalCode=teca
Drake, R. E. (2019). Overmedicating vulnerable children in the US. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 28(4), 358-359. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/epidemiology-and-psychiatric-sciences/article/overmedicating-vulnerable-children-in-the-us/427175066064714EDDD9F37D44DA0F45
Hirpa, D. A. (2021). Exclusion of children with disabilities from early childhood education: Including approaches of social exclusion. Cogent Education, 8(1), 1952824. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2331186X.2021.1952824
Hutchon, B., Gibbs, D., Harniess, P., Jary, S., Crossley, S. L., Moffat, J. V. & Basu, A. P. (2019). Early intervention programmes for infants at high risk of atypical neurodevelopmental outcome. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 61(12), 1362-1367. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dmcn.14187
Movahedazarhouligh, S. (2021). Quality Inclusion of Young Children with Disabilities: Taking a Stance to Support Early Childhood Leaders. In Teacher Education in the 21st Century-Emerging Skills for a Changing World. Intech Open. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=S8A1EAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA313&dq=Quality+Inclusion+of+Young+Children+with+Disabilities:+Taking+a+Stance+to+Support+Early+Childhood+Leaders+WRITTEN+BY++Sara+Movahedazarhouligh&ots=5Suiuk3tfh&sig=OEBBNynmI8yC1WiOrrQyum13mWQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
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