Early Childhood Intervention Essay

The lecture last week gave me a clearer understanding as to why parents might deny services that could help their children with disabilities. Instead of just focusing on the emotional aspect of it, I was able to see the logical side of such a tremendous decision. Concerning the emotional side, I would initially be very upset, confused and even a bit angry. But since I am an ECI professional, I would set aside my own personal judgments and look for ways to help the family out any way I can. I would think of possible reasons why they have denied the services. Understanding a situation best I can, will help me figure out compromises and solutions. Maybe there are money problems, time constraints, or underestimating the issue, for example.

Other tactics I would use would be to find out as much information concerning the family and child as possible. As well as heavily stressing that the first three years of development are critical for a child. I’d discuss what the ECI approach is and listen and answers questions the parents might have. I’d also discuss ECI being a heavily family-centered service. Unfortunately, not all parents have the time or patience to listen to all of that information.

I believe that a lot of misunderstandings and misinterpretations happen because people do not fully understand the information being presented to them. Being an HDFS major has allowed me to get a deeper understanding concerning child development and this class has specified children with disabilities and developmental problems. A lot of people don’t know the normal development patterns let alone signals for developmental delays. Getting people the information so that they are aware is a major factor in this situation.

To clarify, I would not be in any way aggressive or overbearing when it comes to presenting this information. I would be respectful and polite and accept a parent’s decision. If services were completely refused after the information is presented to them, I