McKenney, S. (2013). As early as possible. Invited key message address at the Inclusive Education in Europe conference November 18, Brussels.Regardless of whether a child develops special needs  over time or has them from birth, research clearly indicates  that the sooner special needs are detected and tended to, the greater the impact of services.  Thus, for both the quality of care to children, and the rate of return on investment, timely action is crucial. Success or failure in achieving timely action hinges on many factors, but three processes in particular are highly influential for enabling children’s needs to be addressed as early as possible: detection and assessment; intervention; and support

McKenney, Susan

Regardless of whether a child develops special needs over time or has them from birth, research clearly indicates that the sooner special needs are detected and tended to, the greater the impact of services. Thus, for both the quality of care to children, and the rate of return on investment, timely action is crucial. Success or failure in achieving timely action hinges on many factors, but three processes in particular are highly influential for enabling children’s needs to be addressed as early as possible: detection and assessment; intervention; and support. Early detection and assessment of children’s special needs is important for multiple reasons. First, the detection of special needs at a young age helps caregivers by describing and (sometimes) explaining characteristics about a child; this provides validation to caregivers who have been concerned, and can raise awareness in those who may have not noticed or understood a child’s special needs. Second, formal identification of special needs can open up pathways to services that may help the child directly (e.g. learning resources), indirectly (e.g. parental support) or both. Third, understanding a child’s abilities and needs can serve formative goals, such as shaping learning trajectories or setting priorities in therapies.Early intervention refers to rapidly responding to developing special needs of children at any age, but when attending to the special needs of very young children, the term Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) is often used. ECI is defined as ‘a composite of services/provisions for very young children and their families, provided at their request at a certain time in a child’s life, covering any action undertaken when a child needs special support to: a) ensure and enhance her/his personal development; b) strengthen the family’s own competences, and c) promote the social inclusion of the family and the child’ (European Agency, 2010, p.7). Key considerations related to providing early interventions include the: availability, quality and quantity of services across circumstances (e.g. urban/rural regions, high/low income). The presence or absence of support can powerfully influence if, how and when detection, assessment and intervention actions are taken. Here, support refers to the human and material resources provided to caregivers for the purposes of facilitating them in their role vis a vis the child. For example, parental support can take the form of information and exchange, with peers or professionals; or teacher support may include cooperation with professionals in or outside of the school. While support may be focused on a child’s immediate concerns (e.g. competencies to be developed this week or this year), support is also essential to anticipating and enabling appropriate and smooth transitions (e.g. into formal schooling, from one school to another, from schooling to employment). This presentation will address the three processes of detection and assessment; intervention; and support. After discussing barriers and enablers related to each of these processes, recommendations will be given for developing policies that enable us to address special needs as early as possible

NARCIS 

As Early as Possible

Regardless of whether a child develops special needs over time or has them from birth, research clearly indicates that the sooner special needs are detected and tended to, the greater the impact of services. Thus, for both the quality of care to children, and the rate of return on investment, timely action is crucial. Success or failure in achieving timely action hinges on many factors, but three processes in particular are highly influential for enabling children’s needs to be addressed as early as possible: detection and assessment; intervention; and support.  
Early detection and assessment of children’s special needs is important for multiple reasons. First, the detection of special needs at a young age helps caregivers by describing and (sometimes) explaining characteristics about a child; this provides validation to caregivers who have been concerned, and can raise awareness in those who may have not noticed or understood a child’s special needs. Second, formal identification of special needs can open up pathways to services that may help the child directly (e.g. learning resources), indirectly (e.g. parental support) or both. Third, understanding a child’s abilities and needs can serve formative goals, such as shaping learning trajectories or setting priorities in therapies.
Early intervention refers to rapidly responding to developing special needs of children at any age, but when attending to the special needs of very young children, the term Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) is often used. ECI is defined as ‘a composite of services/provisions for very young children and their families, provided at their request at a certain time in a child’s life, covering any action undertaken when a child needs special support to: a) ensure and enhance her/his personal development; b) strengthen the family’s own competences, and c) promote the social inclusion of the family and the child’ (European Agency, 2010, p.7). Key considerations related to providing early interventions include the: availability, quality and quantity of services across circumstances (e.g. urban/rural regions, high/low income). 
The presence or absence of support can powerfully influence if, how and when detection, assessment and intervention actions are taken. Here, support refers to the human and material resources provided to caregivers for the purposes of facilitating them in their role vis a vis the child. For example, parental support can take the form of information and exchange, with peers or professionals; or teacher support may include cooperation with professionals in or outside of the school. While support may be focused on a child’s immediate concerns (e.g. competencies to be developed this week or this year), support is also essential to anticipating and enabling appropriate and smooth transitions (e.g. into formal schooling, from one school to another, from schooling to employment). 
This presentation will address the three processes of detection and assessment; intervention; and support. After discussing barriers and enablers related to each of these processes, recommendations will be given for developing policies that enable us to address special needs as early as possible

DSpace at Open Universiteit Nederland

Open University of the Netherlands Research Portal

English

University of Twente Research Information

As early as possible

Key Message: As Early as Possible  
Keynote address at the European Agency  
International conference on inclusive education in Europe  
November 18, Brussels, Belgium 
Susan McKenney 
Open University & Twente University 
UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE. 
As early as possible 
• The sooner special needs are detected and tended to, the 
greater the impact of services 
• Quality of care 
• Return on investment 
 
• Timely action hinges on early: 
• Detection and assessment 
• Intervention 
• Support 
Early detection and assessment 
• Means: identifying and understanding special needs 
• Helps caregivers 
• Describing and explaining  
• Validation  
• Raise awareness  
•  Provides formal identification to open pathways to 
• Direct services (e.g. learning resources) and/or 
• Indirect services (e.g. parental support)  
• Serves formative goals 
• e.g. shaping learning trajectories  
• e.g. setting priorities in therapies. 
Early detection and assessment 
Barriers 
• Risk factors easier to 
identify than at-risk 
children 
• High quality screening 
tools not available for all 
areas requiring treatment 
• Subtle problems difficult to 
detect  
Enablers 
• Routine surveillance has 
been shown to work 
• Parent knowledge is very 
helpful and could be used 
more in many cases 
 
Early intervention 
• Means: rapidly responding to developing special needs of 
children at any age,  
• Especially relevant: Early Childhood Intervention includes 
(European Agency 2010):   
• ensure and enhance personal development;  
• strengthen the family’s own competences, an/or  
• promote the social inclusion of the family and the child’  
• Key considerations 
• availability, quality and quantity of services  
• across circumstances (e.g. urban/rural regions, high/low income) 
Early intervention 
Barriers 
• Availability of services 
• Awareness of services 
• Human condition (e.g. 
emotion, inertia, insecurity) 
• Time 
• Language  
• Culture 
 
Enablers 
• Multilingual, low-threshold 
contact (e.g. attentive live 
person in phone call) 
• Swift initiation of action 
(e.g. obtaining 
appointment by end of 
phone call) 
Early support 
• Means: Human/material resources provided to caregivers  
• Wields powerful influence on if, how and when detection, 
assessment and intervention actions are taken.  
• Examples: 
• Family support - information and exchange, with peers or 
professionals; sibling coaching 
• teacher support - cooperation with professionals in or outside of the 
school; inter-agency agreements 
• Can focus on: 
• immediate concerns (e.g. competencies to be developed this week 
or this year),  
• anticipating and enabling appropriate and smooth transitions  (e.g. 
into formal schooling, from one school to another, from schooling to 
employment). 
Early support 
Barriers 
• Establishing clear, 
measurable objectives is 
more common in programs 
focusing in at-risk children 
than in those focusing on 
support 
• Historical lack of tools-
cultyre to measure support 
outcomes  
Enablers 
• Outcomes and 
accountability levels 
becoming understood 
• Tools are being developed 
• Teachers want support 
• Families want support 
• Communities want to see 
people using the services 
they provide 
 
Bringing it together 
 
These factors… 
• Are all related 
• Include sub-
components 
• Form an 
ongoing cycle, 
not always in 
the ideal 
sequence 
• Are shaped by 
(interactions 
between) 
policy, practice 
and research 
Monitoring & 
detection 
Assessment 
& planning 
Intervention & 
observation 
Evaluation & 
reflection 
Typically: interacting, but separate worlds 
practice 
research 
policy 
Toward mutually beneficial 
policy, practice & research interactions 
policy 
research practice * 
 
 
RDD – DR – CoP 
(Research, Development, Diffusion – Design Research – Communities of Practice) 
Cross-cutting interaction requires change 
• Policies that fund connected work (not separate funding 
for intervention in practice vs research work) 
 
• Practitioners that want to engage, often beyond their 
own day-to-day 
 
• Researchers who value changes in practice and practical 
and usable knowledge alongside or as part of the quest 
for theoretical understanding 
 
• More examples of the added-value such approaches 
have to offer to inform policy, shape practice and deepen 
research-based understandings 
Discussion: 
• Reflecting on the main issues addressed: 
• Early monitoring, detection; assessment, planning 
• Early intervention, observation, evaluation, reflection 
• Early support mechanisms during all processes and for varied 
stakeholders 
 
• What policies, practices and research: 
• Currently facilitate appropriate action? Across Europe? 
• Are needed to engender positive change? Across Europe? 
 
• Can we influence? Directly? Indirectly? (How?) 
• Should be highest on our agenda? (Why?) 
 
 
Thank you! 
For discussion beyond today…  
UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE. 
Susan McKenney 
 
www.EducationalDesignResearch.org 
susan.mckenney@ou.nl 
susan.mckenney@utwente.nl 
 
@SusanEMcKenney 
Discussion: A task for us? 
Detection & 
Assessment Intervention Support 
Policy 
Practice 
Research 
Seeing systems, one example 


https://ris.utwente.nl/ws/files/5362742/McKenney%20IC%20Researchers%20paper.pdf

As early as possible

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

NARCIS

DSpace at Open Universiteit Nederland

Open University of the Netherlands Research Portal

University of Twente Research Information

Open University of the Netherlands Research Portal

DSpace at Open Universiteit Nederland