國內早期療育現況：探討醫護人員應扮演的角色

The Existing State of Early Intervention in Taiwan: A Discussion on the Role of Health Professionals

早期療育是指對6歲以下的發展遲緩兒的早期發現與早期介入，以促進兒童的潛在發展能力，降低發展障礙的程度，協助兒童及其家庭，減少社會福利成本。而發展遲緩兒在三歲以前的療育效果是三歲以後療育的10倍。但國內發展遲緩兒的通報率只有1/10。本文討論國內目前早期療育施行狀況，並探討早療目前困境及通報率低的可能原因。醫護人員在早期發現發展遲緩兒中扮演重要角色，應包括如何早期發現，加強兒童發展篩檢評估的能力，讓父母重視兒童發展的重要性，對特殊家庭兒童的發展提高警覺，協助父母接受早期療育的照護，醫護人員應了解早療體系，運用早期療育醫、社、教資源，提供以家庭為中心的持續性照護。

Early intervention focuses on the care of children under 6 years with developmental delay.The intervention provides 10 times the amount of care effectiveness if the intervention isperformed during the child's first 3 years. The importance of early intervention is to promote thechildren's developmental potential, diminish the level of developmental delay, assist the childrenand family, and reduce any financial burdens. However, the exploring rate of children withdevelopmental delay is only 1/10 in Taiwan. This review discusses the current problems andpossible reasons for low exploring rates. Health professionals play a crucial role in identifyingchildren with developmental delay. This review also provides suggestions for health teams inearly intervention: increasing the ability of assessing children development, assisting families toaccept the early interventions, awakening children's development in the high risk family,comprehending the network of early intervention, applying the early intervention resources (medical,social, educational), and providing a continuous family-centered care plan.