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Published on: June 20, 2020
Promoting children's wellbeing: Professionals' experiences and views on early identification
Karin Pernebo1, Mats Anderberg2, Pamela Massoudi3
1Department of Psychology, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden; Department of Research and Development, Region Kronoberg, Växjö, Sweden.
Insights
Professionals see the value in early identification of children needing support, focusing on the parent-child relationship and interprofessional collaboration. Understanding young children
Area of Science:
- Child development and early intervention
- Pediatric behavioral and emotional health
- Family support systems
Background:
- Early identification of developmental, behavioral, or emotional concerns in infants and preschoolers is crucial.
- Risk factors include parental mental health, relational challenges, child abuse, and neglect.
- Municipalities are implementing frameworks like Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) for systematic risk identification and intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate professionals' perceptions of early identification for children needing support.
- To understand which children should be identified and why, focusing on developmental, behavioral, or emotional concerns.
- To explore the role of risk factors and interventions within the GIRFEC framework.
Main Methods:
- Exploratory qualitative design with an inductive approach.
- Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with 14 participants across three municipalities and seven organizations.
- Thematic analysis was used to analyze interview data.
Main Results:
- Five main themes emerged: 'It's about the parents', 'Focus on child behaviour and development', 'The impact of the relationship', 'Understanding young children is detective work', and 'Consequences of early identification'.
- Professionals emphasize the importance of the child-parent relationship in identifying at-risk children.
- Interprofessional collaboration is seen as essential for understanding young children's needs.
Conclusions:
- Professionals are convinced of the value of early identification and support for children.
- The child-parent relationship is central to identifying children in need of support.
- Effective understanding and support for young children require interprofessional collaboration.
Aim:
This study aimed to investigate how professionals working with infants and preschoolers perceive the concept of early identification of children in need of support due to developmental, behavioral, or emotional concerns, which children should be identified and offered support or intervention, and why this should be done. Concerns can typically be associated to risk factors such as, parental mental health problems, relational challenges, or child abuse and neglect. The study was performed in municipalities implementing models inspired by the Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) framework with the aim of systematically identifying risk factors during the early years and offering preventive and indicated interventions to families. GIRFEC involves a broad collaborative approach including tools and a structure for meetings with both families and professionals.
Design:
The study used an exploratory qualitative design with an inductive approach.
Method:
Data was collected via semi-structured interviews. Individual face-to-face interviews were conducted with 14 participants from three municipalities and seven organisations or workplaces. The interviews were analysed using thematic analysis.
Results:
The analysis resulted in five main themes: 'It's about the parents', 'Focus on child behaviour and development', 'The impact of the relationship', 'Understanding young children is detective work', and 'Consequences of early identification'.
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that professionals are convinced of the meaningfulness of early identification and support, have a strong focus on the child-parent relationship, consider parents the primary road to identifying children at risk and in need of support, and believe that understanding young children calls for interprofessional collaboration.
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