Development Issues for Children

Early Childhood Development Issues

Module One of Chen's work Early Intervention in Action... presents a number of different aspects of the experience of families raising children who have multiple disabilities. It is quite different to consider these aspects from a clinical or even educational perspective rooted in theory, versus doing so from the perspective of the impact of this situation on one's family. There seems to be a greater amount of difficulty in raising children with multiple disabilities that can challenge a family in numerous ways. Based on the information in this module, it seems almost certain that one of the most exacting is simply modifying one's schedule and accounting for the different people and places that such a child must interact with and go to, respectively, in order to achieve success in life.

Perhaps the most vital facet of this module is the way that it is able to contextualize the role of the interventionist in the life of a child with multiple disabilities. It is crucial to remember that the family is always the primary point of interaction between the child and the rest of the world, and that the interventionist's job is to actually support both the child and the family in this regard.

Applying the realities of this situation to clinical practice results in interventionists' remaining more cognizance of the ramifications of his or her diagnoses or work with the child on the larger family. Personally, I will remember that the various family members may each react to the news and ramifications of their child's disabilities in different ways (Chen, 2008). Therefore, it is important to prioritize the feelings of family members when dealing with them in relation to the child, nearly as much as it is to prioritize working with that child and helping him or her.

The second module of the aforementioned book provides a plethora of intervention about how to approach a home visit for interventionists seeking to work with children (and their families) of disabilities. It was extremely interesting to read about how throughout the years the shift of focus of the work of the interventionist has fluctuated. Starting since the 1970's, that focus has vacillated between the child to the caregivers (meaning family members), and also involved hybrid approaches in which the interventionist focused his or her instruction on both parties (Chen, 2008).

It is fairly clear how this module relates to the preceding one. Whereas the latter was about the various concerns of the interventionist and family members in working with children with disabilities, this one honed in on that work and the goal of in-home intervention. It is critical to equip families with the training and knowledge for how to work with children who may have mental or learning disabilities -- and which can also help those caregivers to contextualize and deal with their own feelings as well.

As such, the part of this module that describes some of the approaches and areas of prioritization for the interventionist certainly seem applicable to both students and professionals engaged in this sort of work. It seems prudent to evaluate the child in terms of his or her strengths, characteristics, and needs, and to translate each of these different areas to the priorities, concerns, and resources available to the family (Chen, 2008). This basic structure can help an interventionist determine how much he or she actually needs to work on developing the child and how much he or she needs to work on assisting the caregivers. The emphasis on each of these areas will likely vary according to the situation and the information that the interventionist ascribes to the aforementioned stratifications.

The best way for me to determine the concerns, priorities, and resources of a new family referred to my program is to begin my initial home visitation by utilizing an approach based on triadic interactions (Chen, 2008). Specifically, this approach will enable me to assess both the infant and his or her caretakers. I would be able to assess the infant via observation and interaction with him or her -- the latter might involve my attempt to teach the infant some simple skill (Chen, 2008). Additionally, I would assess the caretakers by observing their interactions with the infant and also interviewing them to find out their pertinent concerns, priorities and resources.