Benefits of Early Intervention for Young Children’s Growth and Development
Every kid deserves the best possible start in life, the development and experiences children have through childhood and adolescence lay the foundation of their healthy, happy, and productive lives. Recent research on brain development states, if you are teaching young children “earlier is better”. By the time a child reaches the age of 3, the majority of their primary brain structure has developed, and it becomes more challenging to make significant changes in a child’s growth and development.
Early intervention refers to identifying and providing effective early support and services to young children with developmental delays. In young children, the first sign of developmental problems is delayed communication and language. Early detection and treatment of language and communication problems can help children to prevent potential problems with learning, reading, social interaction, and behaviour.
What does Early Intervention Do for Young Children?
With an expert team of audiologists and speech-language pathologists, early intervention supports kids’ development by enhancing communication, cognitive, physical, self-helping, and social-emotional skills in them. Following are the variety of skills, which can be developed through early intervention in young children.
- Early intervention develops communication skills in young children which improves listening, talking, understanding, and gesturing skills in them.
- It helps to enhance cognitive skills like learning, thinking, and problem-solving skills.
- Enhances physical skills in young children such as hearing, seeing, crawling, walking, and climbing.
- Self-helping skills in young children can be enhanced by their early intervention, which helps them in eating, bathing, dressing, etc.
- Early intervention develops social-emotional skills in young children, which makes them able to understand feelings, make friends and play with them.
Why is early intervention important for young children?
Early intervention is essential for achieving the best results in infants, toddlers, and pre-schoolers, as they have developing brains that are built to develop new skills and habits. The following arethe most important benefits that early intervention provides for the development of young children.
Provide Information, Support, and Resources
Early intervention offers information, support, and resources for enhancing communication skills in young children. it has the potential to alter a child’s development and enhance outcomes for kids, families, and communities. Early intervention helps family’s better meet the need of their children from an early age and throughout their lives.
Improves Behaviour
Delayed communication development impacts their understanding and engagement with other children. Children with delayed communication and language development may get frustrated and face challenges to express their wants and needs. Children that receive early intervention learn how to communicate, express emotions, and interact with friends.
Healthy Brain Development
The early years of a child’s life are very crucial for healthy brain development, the majority of a child’s speech and language skills are developed throughout the first 3 years of life. Early intervention supports the developing brains of young children to learn new skills and empowers them to reach their true potential.
Promote Future Success in school and Society
Early intervention improves the physical and mental health of young children, which helps in promoting their future performance in school and society. The development of communication skills lays the foundation of literacy and influences their future success in learning, health, and living.
Make Learning Fun
Early intervention encourages everyday activities in children and provides them the opportunity to learn with fun. It offers a variety of learnings during play and also when eating, bathing, getting dressed, brushing teeth, getting ready for bed, and many other activities. Children can learn how to communicate, express feelings, and interact with friends with the help of early intervention.
Conclusion
Early intervention refers to providing support to young children, who are at risk of experiencing poor outcomes such as academic difficulties, hearing problems, mental health problems, and communication problems. Preventing problems earlier and reducing their impact on children’s life is crucial for their better future. Early identification of hearing problems in young children by hearing screening reduces the risk of hearing loss in them. Early intervention empowers families to help their children with developmental challenges. With repetition and integration of early intervention strategies into mealtime, playtime, and bedtime, it becomes a part of their life. Early intervention helps children to acquire the skills they need for communication, socializing, self-control, and problem-solving. Thus, early intervention is a crucial strategy to provide the skills they need to learn in life during the early years of their life.