A Community Habilitation Program for Early Childhood Intervention: the Long-Term Effectiveness of the Routines-Based Engagement Classroom Model and the Processes of Cross-Cultural Adaptation

In Taiwan, based on the launch of the Implementation Act of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Social and Family Affairs Administration, 2014), national report in 2016 and international evaluation in 2017, participation and inclusion for children and families are promoted as human rights in educational, clinical and community settings. According to the Special Education Law (2013) in Taiwan, the age for inclusion education has been extended down to age 2 years. Many young children with special needs now have received both clinical habilitation and school-based therapies. International rehabilitation programs for children emphasize the role of primary service providers (the professionals such as therapists, medical staff, special education teachers, and social workers) to provide integrated and long-term services that the living culture and context of the families will be considered. Therefore, the settings of professional services will extend from clinical settings to broader educational settings and children’s living community from now on. This continuously evolved program will be the following project of the pilot studies previously funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST- 105-2314-B-182 -012- and MOST-106-2314-B-182-047-). The pilot studies consolidated the conceptual framework of the participation-based therapy and routines-based model into a practical model named “The routines-based engagement classroom model (RECM)” which was designed to be applicable to preschool/day-care settings. The primary service providers needed in the following project have been well trained to provide RECM in the future. Because there is rare evidence about systematic and long-term preschool or inclusive outcomes for children and families in Taiwan, the purposes of this continuous project are to: (1) Investigate the child and family outcomes of the RECM approach compared to the usual care; (2) Analyze the process cross-cultural adaptation of RECM by quantitative and qualitative data. This research is a three-year longitudinal follow-up project with cluster randomized control trial (70 families for RECM group and 70 families for usual care group). The participants are young children with or at risk for developmental delay aged 2-6 years and their families. The primary outcomes are children’s participation/Engagement in home, community, and school routines, and families’ participation in decision making of intervention goal setting and planning. Growth curves trajectories will be plotted across the 7 time points to analyze and compare growth trajectories. Data will be analyzed using two-way ANOVA with group-time interaction. The changes of growth curve are analyzed by hierarchical linear modeling with clusters of preschool and professional types. The data of process of cross-cultural adaptation of RECM will be collected by researchers’ field notes of the observing the primary service providers and the questionnaires and interview with the primary service providers. The data will be synthesized by either quantitative or qualitative analysis. The project will form an evidence-based and culturally-appropriate “Routines-based Engagement Classroom Model” in Taiwan. The child and family outcomes will provide the framework of implementing community-based early childhood habilitation services, and the blueprint for professional development.

Project ID:PC10708-1122
External Project ID:MOST107-2314-B182-034