Category: Abstracts

Cooperation between social and health services.

Irena Lintnerová

The presentation show the cooperation of providers from the field of social services and education with providers of specialized palliative and hospice care in the Kaňka Centre. The focus is on the child with a life-limiting or life-threatening diagnosis and his family. The cooperation takes place in the spirit of the principles of comprehensive approach so that families with these children receive maximum support, information and care under the so-called “one roof”, in a familiar environment, from where further follow-up support is coordinated.

Therapy while you sleep!

Denise Luscombe

Postural Care: A family-centred approach for children with physical disability. A workshop for parents and professionals. Parents will learn practical information on how to support the correct positioning of a child with motor limitations. Parents can bring photos of the baby’s sleeping position with them.

Slovakia on the way to interdepartmental cooperation in supporting families with children with disabilities in early childhood.

Matej Vladislav, PhD. – Erika Tichá, PhD

The potential of early intervention services can be used to the full potential only if interventions are connected to each other, are complementary and especially do not contradict values.

How can a parent of a child with a disability or in the rist of developmental delay feel if in the medical environment he is maneuvered into complete dependence on the doctor’s recommendation, in the special educational environment the child is “corrected” by professionals behind the closed doors of the clinic and the early intervention social service offer parents a partner relationship.

Is it possible to shift early intervention services to real interdepartmental cooperation?

What does such a process requires at the system level?

Preparing for the sound bit of Jazz…

Ana Maria Serrano & Noor van Loen, Eurlyaid

The goal of this presentation is to describe the efforts made by Eurlyaid in the last years to develop Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) practices based on evidence on Eastern European and Central Asia countries (Serbia, Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Tajikistan and Kirgizstan) with the support of organizations such as UNICEF, Open Society Foundation and Velux Foundation. The right to quality ECI is recognized by the UNCRPD, UNCRC, EPSR and SDGs. Despite some positive developments, the availability and accessibility to quality ECI programs continues to be a challenge in EU, in part due to the coexistence of “inherited” clinical and rehabilitation approaches, as well as the lack of inter-sectoral coordination between the areas of social security, health and education, attention to the professional development to ensure qualified professionals and an understanding of ECI based on evidence, key elements to ensure service delivery of systemic and family-centered ECI. Children make better progress when practitioners are professionally qualified and possess sound, sensitive approaches and knowledge in supporting families and caregivers as mediators of child development.

Early intervention in families with children with CVI

Early intervention by children with CVI plays a significant importance. It connects with the brain’s ability to adapt and change – neuroplasticity. However, we sensitively take into account another dimension as well – parents of the youngest children with disabilities found themselves in a challenging situation. They search for information, support and child development possibilities along with strategies on how to cope with the new life situation. We briefly explain the diagnosis and the specifics of the intervention, inform about experience that the Center of the Early Intervention´s team has from family accompanying. We focus on the examples where it is successful to combine the development of sight perception in an everyday life with the support of family as a whole.

The team around the child (TOD) – as a tool for preventing traumatic memories of a child with a medical disadvantage and his family system.

Přemysl Mikoláš

The aim of my communication is to formulate the possibilities of care and support for the family of a child with a medical disadvantage through the Team around the child. In other words, metaphorically: “SEE the possible Trauma around the child”.

Because:

• Persons with physical disabilities or sensory disabilities and especially persons with mental handicaps or with combined disabilities are exposed to a significantly higher risk of becoming victims of traumatic events than persons without disabilities.

• A person with a disability is often affected by trauma during their childhood and adolescence.

• Traumatized persons with combined disabilities benefit primarily from an environment that will offer positive and safe relationships. We can only use classical procedures for the treatment of trauma very rarely.

In my presentation, I will describe the use of this essential tool to ensure the psychological safety of the family of a child with a medical disadvantage.

The team around the child is the key to building trust and a confidential relationship between the family and people who enter a specific family system through a medical disadvantage.

Based on my personal, repeated experiences, as a direct participant of the Team around the child at the EDUCO Zlín Early Childhood Intervention Center, I think that this tool is an essential part of the psychological relief and psychological growth of all involved.

The International Classification of Functionning, Health and Disability (ICF) as a common language for professionals and parents in Early Childhood Intervention

Manfred Pretis

In line with the UN-Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disability the ICF (WHO 2002) highlights the importance of 1) a common language between all involved members of a “team around the family” (including parents), 2) an ability focused and holistic approach when describing the complex situation of children with developmental difficulties and 3) intervention planning based on “participation goals”.

The keynote summarizes conceptual approaches and empirical findings regarding implementation processes of ICF in European (legislative) and operative contexts, e.g. to which extent parents involvement and inclusive strategies can be strengthened by using ICF. Strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threads concerning ICF implementation in Early Childhood Intervention in diverse European contexts are discussed within the context of current EU projects (www.icf-inclusion.net, www.icf-plan.eu, www.icf-implement.net)

Literature:

Manfred Pretis, Jitka Barlová, Terezie Hradilková (2019). Raná péče. Pasparta

Preschool Inclusion and Children’s Peer Relationships

Michael J. Guralnic

Children’s peer relationships and friendships serve important developmental functions, influencing cognitive, communicative, emotion regulation, and prosocial domains of development. In this presentation, I examine the characteristics of children’s peer-related social competence, the role of experiences in inclusive preschool programs in relation to interactions with peers, and the implementation of comprehensive interventions to enhance core features of children’s social play with peers for preschool age children with developmental delays and disabilities. A systems approach within a larger societal perspective is emphasized and utilized as a framework for future work.

Creating the core care conditions for children and families to flourish: The role of early childhood intervention services

Tim Moore

Our health and wellbeing are shaped by the conditions – social, physical, material and cultural – in which we live. These factors have a greater impact on outcomes than do the services we receive. This presentation outlines the core care conditions that children and families need to flourish and explores the roles that early childhood intervention services can play in helping ensure that these conditions are met. One of the most important of these conditions is the need for positive relationships. This is obviously critical for young children who need responsive caregiving to develop secure attachments, but it is also important for their parents and for professionals as well. This need for positive relationships is a fundamental part of our neurobiology and shapes our wellbeing throughout our lives.
The implications for early childhood intervention services of these findings are explored. Focusing on the need for positive relationships shapes both what we deliver (helping families build positive relationships) and how we deliver services (the relationships we develop with parents are central to the effectiveness of our work). Focusing on the wider core care conditions for children and families highlights the fact that stand-alone ECI service systems will always struggle to meet all the diverse needs of families. They need to be embedded in a comprehensive and inclusive ECD service system that provides all families with the conditions they need to raise their children as they (and we) would wish, as well as ready access to the services they and their children need. ECI services need to build bridges with these other professionals and services. Once again, positive relationships are the key.

I felt alone

Marilyn Espe-Sherwindt

Families tell us that having a child with a delay or disability can at times be a very lonely journey to make. How do we as early intervention providers respond? What is the importance of the other members of the family’s social network? How do we work together so that (1) parents have the time, energy, knowledge and skills to engage their children in everyday learning opportunities, and (2) parents leave early intervention feeling stronger, supported, and more hopeful about the future?