Early Intervention Services for Young Children with Down Syndrome and Their Families: Recent Trends in the World and Turkey

Abstract

Children with Down syndrome (DS) usually pass through the same stages in the same order inall areas of development, just like other typically developing children. However, this developmentoccurs more slowly and with some differences in children with DS. At this point, it is very importantto start early intervention services for these children and their families as soon as possible. Nowadays, family participation, parent-child interaction, natural setting practices, and the teaching offunctional skills emerge as important issues in the early intervention programs presented toyoung children with DS and their families. In this context, it is observed that studies on parentimplemented early intervention practices have increased, especially in recent years. These practices aim to teach evidence-based strategies to parents, to support the development of youngchildren at the maximum level by transferring these strategies to daily routines and implementingthem, to increase parental competencies and strengthen them. These practices are observed tovary according to the needs of children and their families and be included in different applicationmodels. In Turkey, early intervention studies have been conducted on young children with DSand their families. However, these studies are very limited. In this study, it was aimed to revealthe trends changing from past to present with regard to early intervention studies performed foryoung children with DS and their families in the world and in Turkey. It is thought that this studywill contribute to researchers and practitioners working with children with DS and their familiesand will guide the planning of future studies.