Funding for Early Interventionist Programs Grant Proposal

Funding for Early Interventionist Programs Grant Proposal

Part I: Executive Summary

This program is requesting $620,000 for the development, implementation, and maintenance of an early interventionist program for two years for the reasons that follow. Early interventionists work with children from birth to kindergarten or beyond to provide help, support, education, or therapy depending on the child’s needs. As such, the early interventionist program provides an appropriate opportunity to identify and resolve developmental problems from an early age. Unfortunately, these programs can be expensive or difficult to implement, especially when those undertaking them have not prepared themselves adequately.

There is a need to provide some funding to such programs to ensure that early interventionists perform effectively and efficiently, helping children develop healthier and achieve their milestones as other children. If these special-needs individuals do not undergo early interventionist programs, they may lag developmentally and may experience disadvantages in life. It is also difficult to deal with developmental problems later in life.

 Early intervention minimizes the harshness of these conditions, making them more manageable. Such programs often focus on children with autism and physical developmental delays. The early interventionist program proposed here will help children with autism and physical developmental challenges. This proposal comprises six parts, including the executive summary.

 In the second part, the author states the needs for the program and explains why it is important. The author then describes the program in the third part and evaluates it in the fourth part. In the fifth part, the author provides organizational information and closes with a breakdown of how the company will use the allocated resources. Every society needs an early interventionist program to identify and address developmental issues and increase children’s quality of life while simultaneously lowering the burden of sickness in society.

Part II: Statement of Need

Early interventionist programs (in general) help children from early age to kindergarten or beyond. Their general purpose is to rectify developmental problems identified in childhood and create opportunities to improve the child’s quality of life and reduce the burden of disease for society (Stewart & Applequist, 2019).

In this proposed early interventionist program, the author will focus on creating a program that helps children with autism and developmental delays get back on track as they grow older.

 Autism spectrum disorder is related to issues with the development of the brain. The disease hampers how individuals socialize with and perceive others. It also causes communication problems and indices limited but repetitive patterns of behavior. The disease is characterized by delayed developmental milestones, social awkwardness, and verbal and nonverbal communication difficulties. With this early interventionist program, it will be possible to immediately identify the problem and begin intervention to positively impact the child’s brain development and reverse any negative impacts.

The proposed program will also focus on identifying and rectifying physical developmental problems. Parents may have difficulties detecting some physical developmental issues, but experienced physicians and therapies would know when a newborn is at risk of slowed physical development (Kanji, 2021). Examples of this problem include delayed or limited physical movements (rolling over and seating), poor neck and head control, muscle floppiness and stiffness, swallowing difficulty, clumsiness, speech delay, limp or awkward body posture, and muscle spasms, among others.

The early interventionist program would identify these problems from birth and provide appropriate therapy to rectify and eradicate the problem or reduce their severity (Spence & Santos, 2019). Children are still growing and developing, making it easy to mold them and direct their growth. Thus, the basic assumption underlying this treatment approach is the understanding that children are still growing and that it is possible to change their growth trajectory by using a series of interventions, including therapy, nutrition, and guidance and counseling.

Part III: Program Description

The program is designed to assist children when parents or physicians recognize the first warning sign of a developmental issue. The aim is to prevent further impediments by providing therapeutic or practical interventions. The program will benefit children from birth to about age four – a critical development period in the growth of a human being. Since this program will focus on autistic children and those children with physical developmental delays, it will emphasize the attainment of cognitive, communicative, social, and motor skills.

The proposed program will have two critical components. The first one is the child evaluation aspect. This program component will help identify any warning signs among children born at a given hospital (Krukowski et al., 2019). Since the program’s implementation remains limited to one hospital, it will be possible to track changes and identify children that may need help from the moment they are born. The developmental evaluation will look at the child’s physic and evaluate his or her language, speech, motor skills, cognition, and social development.

The second aspect of the program will focus on intervention. The length of the intervention will vary from one child to another depending on the severity of the identified problem (Spence et al., 2018). However, most interventions are expected not to last more than three to four years.

Beyond this point, children have usually reached full development and any changes in their brains and physically will be minimal. The parents or guardians can take over the remaining aspect of the child’s growth, using the approach taught to them by the early interventionist. Continuing to use the early interventionist program would be unnecessarily expensive for the parents and the guardians.

In this intervention part of the program, some of the services offered include occupational therapy, family training, limited nursing services, nutritional services, special instruction, speech and language therapy, and physical therapy. Parents and guardians are expected to be part of the intervention to learn more about the best approaches to helping their children achieve better health and development.

Part IV: Evaluation

The basis of the evaluation of the early interventionist program is the overall outcome. If the outcomes are good or positive, the program is desirable, and vice versa. The evaluation of the program will happen in different stages to measure the desired and expected advancements (Sihvonen, 2018). However, the program’s most critical and reliable evaluation will happen only after three to four years of continuous utilization.

The program will utilize three evaluation approaches and models to better understand its impact and effectiveness. The first evaluation model is the goal-based evaluation. It focuses on the effectiveness of the program’s goals and how the organization can attain them. This evaluation approach will help the early interventionist adjust the program’s goals and objectives accordingly. The second evaluation approach is process-based evaluation. It is based on the critical examination of the evaluation process to identify and eradicate any problems.

 The process-based evaluation will also determine the effectiveness of the utilized approach and the need to continue using it. It will consider the cost of the implementation, the time needed, and similar concerns. The last evaluation approach is outcomes-based. This methodology looks at the outcomes of the early interventionist program and determines its effectiveness and desirability. If the outcomes are desirable, the program is desirable, and vice versa.

Part V: Staff and Organizational Information

This early interventionist program will have five members of staff in the beginning. The number will likely increase as the program becomes popular and more frequently utilized. The program will deploy at Resolution Health in the initial phase, and expansion would follow if a need to do so arises.

All the employees will receive training to help them perform their duties well and help the program become successful. All employees will have some background training in medicine, nursing, psychiatry, and sociology or related fields. They will also understand the human developmental stages and provide guidance and counseling as needed. The program will utilize a case-by-case approach and an interdisciplinary team to ensure effectiveness and reliability. The team members will work together harmoniously to evaluate children and provide the needed interventions for up to four years.

Budget

The budget for the proposed program is $620,000. The program owner will use the money to develop and run the program for two years. The money will also support five positions created by this program, as described below. Notably, this tentative budget may change during implementation as new information becomes available.

 References

Kanji, A. (2021). Models of care in early intervention for children with hearing impairment. Early Detection and Intervention in Audiology: An African perspective, 137. https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/46214/9781776146604_WEB.PDF?sequence=1#page=148

Krukowski, R. A., West, D. S., Priest, J., Ashikaga, T., Naud, S., & Harvey, J. R. (2019). The impact of the interventionist–participant relationship on treatment adherence and weight loss. Translational Behavioral Medicine, 9(2), 368-372. https://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/iby007

Sihvonen, E. (2018). Early interventionist parenting support: the case study of Finland. Families, Relationships and Societies, 7(1), 123-139. https://doi.org/10.1332/204674316X14552878034703

Spence, C. M., Connor, S. M., Burke, T., Cheema, J. R., & Ostrosky, M. M. (2018). Assessing early intervention provider needs. Infants & Young Children, 31(1), 53-68. https://doi.org/10.1097/IYC.0000000000000110

Spence, C. M., & Santos, R. M. (2019). Multi-component professional development for early interventionists. International Journal of Early Childhood Special Education, 11(1), 52-63. https://doi.org/10.20489/intjecse.585390

Stewart, S. L., & Applequist, K. (2019). Diverse families in early intervention: Professionals’ views of coaching. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 33(2), 242-256. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2019.1577777