Rehabilitation Education

This fourth volume in the series describes the needs for identifying children with special needs early in life and the facilities that are being developed for this. It discusses such areas as the role of parents when a child is diagnosed as having a disability. For the purposes of the book, early intervention is defined as systematic strategies aimed at promoting the optimal development of infants and toddlers with special needs and at enhancing the functioning of their families or caregivers. Expressed another way, the overall aim of early intervention is to employ preventive strategies to reduce the occurence and/or the severity of disabling or handicapping conditions in infants and toddlers. Preventive strategies can be considered at two different levels; primary and secondary. Primary prevention is concerned with averting the conditions which give rise to disabilities or handicaps. The main focus however, is on secondary prevention. This has to do with the early indentification of conditions which are likely to place a child's development at serious risk, and the institution of measures to ameliorate or reduce the severity of any disability or handicap which might result from such factors. It is intended to provide a reference for students, professionals, parents and administrators who are, or will be, directly involved in establishing, operating or evaluating early intervention programmes for infants and toddlers with special needs. The book should be particularly relevant to those in child care, rehabilitation education, social welfare and allied areas. This book, provides a comprehensive discussion of some of the most critical issues in designing and implementing early intervention programmes for infants and toddlers with special needs and their families. Its international perspective and its concern for establishing a firm theoretical base for professional practice help to provide a framework against which existing programmes can be critically evaluated and new programmes can be developed.