|
 The study focused on kids who are eligible for therapy through
what’s known as Early Intervention, a government program that funds
services for infants and toddlers who have developmental delays in
things like motor skills, communication, behavior and cognitive
function. Fewer than one in four kids eligible for Early
Intervention get services, researchers note in Pediatrics.
The study team interviewed 22 low-income mothers of African-American
and Latino children up to 36 months old who qualified for Early
Intervention.
All of the kids received routine well-child visits and had
developmental delays.
But 59 percent of the mothers said their children had never enrolled
in Early Intervention.
“In the United States, one in four children under the age of 5 years
is at moderate to high risk of developmental delay, a situation in
which children do not achieve motor, language, cognitive, social or
adaptive skills when they should,” said lead study author Dawn
Magnusson of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in
Aurora.
“Many mothers in our study experienced challenges accessing early
intervention services due to logistical challenges or competing
social and financial stressors that resulted in delayed or forgone
care,” Magnusson said by email. “These findings highlight the
importance of supporting families throughout the referral process
and helping to address their social and financial needs.”
Only two mothers in the study had attended college, and 13 had not
completed high school.
All eight of the African-American women in the study were born in
the U.S., while 11 of the Latino women were from Mexico and the rest
were from Central America. Only seven of the Latino mothers had been
in the U.S. for 10 years or more.
A majority of the kids had developmental delays in expressive
communication; motor delays were the second most common problem.
Few mothers, however, identified their child as having developmental
delays, the interviews found.
Often, women said they believed all children developed at their own
pace, or that children who lagged in one area seemed to be ahead in
other areas that made their mothers question whether the child could
have developmental delays.
[to top of second column] |
Women seemed more open to Early Intervention when they had friends
who had found these services helpful for their children.
Scheduling pressures, finances and other logistics and competing
obligations made it hard for some women to start or continue Early
Intervention services for their child.
Beyond its small size, another limitation of the study is that all
of the mothers interviewed had kids who received regular medical
care. Parents of kids who don’t get routine well-child checkups
might have different beliefs about Early Intervention than the women
in the study, the authors note.
Mothers of other racial or ethnic backgrounds, and fathers, might
also have different perspectives about Early Intervention.
Even so, the findings highlight the importance of parental beliefs
in determining what treatment children may get for developmental
delays, said Dimity Dornan, founder and executive director of Hear
and Say, an advocacy group for kids with delays based in Brisbane,
Australia.
“One has to believe there is a problem and have the time and
education to take an active role,” Dornan, who wasn’t involved in
the study, said by email.
“Children’s brains need to learn basic skills (like crawling) before
other skills (like walking) can be learned,” Dornan added. “If one
of the building blocks in development is missing, then the gap
between what a delayed child can do physically and what a typical
child can do just get larger and larger as the child gets older.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2yteKjG Pediatrics, online October 16, 2017.
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
