Children with developmental delay in regular preschool groups:new procedures of identification, assessment and support

Abstract

Timely detection of children with disabilities, early identification of primary and asso ciated development problems, and an adequate support system in preschool groups are threatened by the lack of appropriate instruments noticeable for a long time in various segments of the assessment. In some cases, developmental disorders, and specific dev elopmental difficulties remain undetected by parents, teachers, associates, or are interpreted incorrectly, which can lead to significant development of complications, especially from the moment the child is included in the primary school system. It is the preschool period that presents an opportunity to recognize such children by using reliable, valid and for our population adapted and standardized tools and techniques, and provide them with adequate support, tailored to the current level and developmental capabilities of the children, which can provide high - quality cognitive interaction in an educational group. The aim of this study was to determine the standard procedure and the choice of appropriate methods for assessment of preschool children through a daptation of the existing tools and development of the necessary ones in various domains of the assessment of a child with developmental disabilities, as well as the formulation of specific procedures to identify the areas of needed support and interventio n at the preschool level. The sample consisted of 289 preschool children from ―Rakovica ―and ―Palilula‖, aged three to seven, 289 parents, 63 teachers and 12 members of the expert service staff in these institutions. Some of the important results of our study indicate that children showed 25% or greater delay in development areas according to PEDS DM test: in the area of fine motor 3.2% of children, self - help 2.8% of children, receptive language 1.7% of children, expressive language 7.6% of children, i n the area of gross motor 7.5% of children, in the domain of socio - emotional development 6.4% of children, and in the domain of academic skills 7.3% of children. The delays equal to or greater than 25%, according to the PEDS DM criteria belong to the dom ain of the disorder and the children are referred to special education services. Approximately 20% of the children of this sample show a delay of 15 - 25% in all the tested domains. These results tell us that a number of the children have to be monitored and further assessed within each developmental domain, that it is necessary to design the support for them in the educational system and to educate parents, to support further development of the children. 30.1% of parents express concern for their child. Acco rding to PEDS they are most concerned about the child's behavior (30.8%), speech (26.3%), and how the child gets along with others (21.1%). In the existing procedure of preschools there are no procedures dealing with parental concerns. More and more parent s are willing to express concern when the instrument is used than when there is no instrument at all. Teachers' assessment (BEK) showed more developmental delays in the areas of behavior, relationships with others, speech, fine and gross motor skills in relation to parental concerns expressed by means of PEDS. On the other hand, a number of parents expressed their concern, but teachers neither detected those children nor described them as the children that are different in any way. According to teachers‘ claims, out of the total number of the detected children 77.6% of them are referred to expert services, while 22.4% of the children remain on the sidelines. There is high percentage of children who are detected but not addressed in the further procedure. The results give a comprehensive insight into the current practices of identification, assessment and support for children with developmental delays and behavioral disorders in preschools and the need to introduce new instruments in this procedure. Introdu cing the BEK assessment to teachers, through daily observation, facilitates early detection of developmental delay and abnormal behavior of children, as well as registration, classification and co - operation with expert services. The introduction of parenta l evaluation of the child's developmental status (PEDS) will enable parents to make a more objective assessment of their child development and will provide guidelines for preferred parental practice. Introducing the PEDS DM instrument to expert services en sure accurate, valid, developmental and behavioral screening, which provides an opportunity to detect, monitor and control the child's development and the definition of all procedures for early intervention. The current system of support for children with disabilities is not comprehensive and complete; the proposed procedure (identification, monitoring and support of children with developmental delays/disabilities in preschools) and criteria for the development of individual education plans have been propo sed and presented in this paper. Teachers and members of expert services show a high degree of agreement, expressed by statistical significance, regarding the claims about the need for special education teachers as associates within preschool institutions.

Pravovremeno otkrivanje dece sa smetnjama u razvoju, rana identifikacija osnovnih i pratećih razvojnih problema, adekvatan sistem podrške u predškolskim grupama, ugroženi su, odavno primetnim, nedostatkom adekvatnih instrumenata, u raznim segmentima procene...