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EARLY INTERVENTION FOR CHILDREN WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES 11

Early Intervention for Children with Intellectual Disabilities in Ireland Compared To UK

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Introduction and Research Rationale

Ireland has experienced a lack of properly maintained policies on interventions for children with intellectual disabilities. This paper focuses on disability services for children to explain how Early Intervention Services work in the Republic of Ireland today (Muddle et al., 2022). People who care about health and education report on the current state of services for children with disabilities under five years old. The Developmental Systems Approach is looked at to see if it can be used to improve service in Ireland. Finally, suggestions for how to improve service in Ireland are made.

The first five years of a child's life can impact how they turn out. This is the point in time when the foundations for good health are set. The well-being, relationships, educational attainment, and other important things need to start being set out at this age (Walsh et al., 2018). Early intervention is very important for children with intellectual disabilities to overcome the problem. Children who have a learning disability are more likely to get into trouble at school. People do not offer a lot of help to the kids who have learning problems, but rather, they experience discrimination. However, effective responses to children with learning disabilities help them have the best possible start in life, which means that they have a better sense of health and development, social skills, and better skills for interacting with people.

Research Framework

The learning disability aspects have been neglected in Ireland for a long time. Disability is different from impairment as a social condition and is defined as a discriminatory social response to a body. The social model of disability changes how people with disabilities and society interact. People with disabilities are disabled because of the socio-structural barriers that disadvantage and exclude them (Giri et al., 2022). The main point of the social model is that society should try to change the attitudes and structures that keep people from being able to participate in different activities, including learning. There are both medical and social ways to get help for people with disabilities and illnesses. On the other hand, Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory helps understand how EI services are provided for families and children. It also helps us understand the many factors that affect EI services. Ecological Systems Theory is a way to look at how things change in the context of different systems that work together (Moore et al., 2020). Bronfenbrenner explained disability through four external systems nested inside each other in logical and straightforward ways. An ecological perspective on child development is a way of looking at how a child's development needs, the ability of their parents to meet those needs, and other factors in the environment all work together over time.

Literature Review

Anglim et al. (2018) described different types of early intervention in children with learning disabilities. All of them are about making the right decisions before a problem gets worse or impacts the lives of the children. Thus, early intervention is not about waiting for the manifestations of full problems before taking the right measures. Instead, the goal is to minimize or even avoid future pain that might be predicted for individuals, families, and society. Learning Disorders are diagnosed when an individual's performance on tests in reading, math, or written expression is significantly below what is expected for their age, level of education, and intelligence level. Significantly below is when there is a difference of more than two standard deviations between the results and the person's IQ. In some cases, the difference between the result and IQ is less than two standard deviations (Morsanyi et al., 2018). This happens when the results of intelligence tests are affected by other problems with cognitive processes, mental disorders, general health of the person, and ethnic background of the person.

The early interventions for children with learning disabilities can be carried out in three phases. A study by Roddy and O'Neill (2019) showed that children with specific learning disabilities have average or above-average intelligence. Still, their scores on standardized tests for reading, math, and written expression are well below what they should be based on their level of intelligence, age, and education. This shows the discrepancy in the children's learning abilities and is the first phase in determining the problems of learning with the children. The heterogeneity tests show how many different types of learning problems a child has. There are a lot of different disorders that fall under the term dyslexia. The most common are dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and dyslexia, which have different effects on reading, writing, and calculating (McCoy et al., 2020). The exclusion is the part of the term specific learning difficulties that stipulates whether the child is facing difficulties in learning due to hearing, vision, motor, emotional, or mental problems, social and cultural deprivation, or other problems.

Emotional Problems in Children with Learning Disabilities

Children with learning or disabilities are more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems. Thirty percent of young children with learning disabilities within the age of zero to three years have problems with their behavior. O'Neill et al. (2020) explained that these children act out in different ways, such as aggression, property damage, or self-injury. Children with learning disabilities are more likely than their peers to have trouble with sleep and feeding. Robinson et al. (2018) explained that the problem is greater in children with genetic learning disorders because they depict various behaviors that hinder learning processes. As a result, they require early interventions to enhance their learning and ensure they do not go through discrimination and stigmatization.

Early Interventions in Children with Learning Disorders in Ireland

The aspect of National Health Coverage was first thought about in the 1940s and Ireland established a coverage plan for everyone (Kenny et al., 2020). Universal health care took a long time to grow because there was not enough money, opposition from the medical profession, opposition from the Catholic Church, and the government's Department of Finance. There was a public health service for all children, with Public Health Nurses taking care of them from birth to the end of school. Because of changes in public health in the 1970s, the services for children with disabilities changed (Muddle et al., 2022). Some people thought that caring for people in their own homes was cheaper than caring for them in a big care center. Because of this, there has been a shift in care from large institutions to smaller ones in the community.

Current Laws on Children with Learning Disabilities

Education and health care for young children with disabilities in Ireland have changed a lot over time. When it comes to kids with disabilities, it has been thought of as a forgotten area for a long time. However, in the 1990s, things changed because Ireland is a signatory to both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (Burns & McGregor, 2019). Both of these conventions stipulate that all children should be able to get an equal education without being discriminated against in the main system of education. As of 2004, there is a law called the Education for People with Special Educational Needs Act (EPSEN). This law states how children with disabilities who are between the ages of 4 and 18 can get a good education (Byrne & Lundy, 2019). There are rules in place to make sure that people with special educational needs can get the most out of their education in a safe, inclusive way. In 2007, Part 2 of the Disability Act (2005) was put into place, which made it legal for children under the age of five to be checked out by a doctor (Byrne & Lundy, 2019). There was a law that said kids had the right to get an independent assessment of their needs in a certain amount of time, as well as a Service Statement that said what services they needed. Disability policy has moved forward, but some people say that these policies are not as strong as they could be when it comes to making sure people have the rights they deserve.

Current Provision of Services to Children with Learning Disabilities

The services on Children with learning disabilities are going through change. A government office for children was set up in 2006 in Ireland. People across the country saw this as an example of how to make sure that equality, health, and childcare all worked together in the same way. Many government services for kids have been combined into one department called the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA), which had been run by a number of different government bodies before 2011 (Agrawal et al., 2019). All of these groups were part of the National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB), the Family Support Agency (FSA), and the Irish Youth Justice Service (IYJS) (IYJS). To help improve the lives of children and young people in Ireland, this huge merger was meant to be a guide. Thus, it is not that Ireland does not have a plan in place for universal or special early intervention services. It is the ineffectiveness in reaching the needs of these children with learning disabilities.

Map of Key Studies

Reference	Description
Roddy, A., & O'Neill, C. (2019). The economic costs and its predictors for childhood autism spectrum disorders in Ireland: How is the burden distributed?. Autism, 23(5), 1106-1118.	The article provides information on the distribution of costs of early interventions for children with autism in Ireland. The parents pay €28,464.89 while the government, through social and educational resources, pays €14,192, making the parents the major financiers in these early interventions.
McCoy, S., Shevlin, M., & Rose, R. (2020). Secondary school transition for students with special educational needs in Ireland. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 35(2), 154-170.	The article explains the levels of discrimination in the transition of students with learning disabilities from the primary to the secondary level. These students are three times more likely to experience poor transition compared to the others.
Robinson, L., Bond, C., & Oldfield, J. (2018). A UK and Ireland survey of educational psychologists' intervention practices for students with an autism spectrum disorder. Educational Psychology in Practice, 34(1), 58-72.	The article compares the factors that influence psychological interventions in students with autism, a learning disorder. It compares how the UK considers these cases and the Ireland situation.
O'Neill, S. J., Smyth, S., Smeaton, A., & O'Connor, N. E. (2020). Assistive technology: Understanding the needs and experiences of individuals with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability in Ireland and the UK. Assistive Technology, 32(5), 251-259.	The article focuses on how assistive technology can enhance the learning of children with learning disabilities such as autism. It compares the use of these methods in the UK and Ireland.
Kenny, N., McCoy, S., & Mihut, G. (2020). Special education reforms in Ireland: changing systems, changing schools. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1-20.	The article focuses on the changes in the Ireland policies on the opportunities for children with learning disabilities. The major considerations are the professional development of the teachers and whether there are appropriate accountability measures in place to enhance performance.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the early interventions for children with learning disabilities are influenced by various measures, including policies and laws. Ireland has had a history of lack of support for this section of students. However, with fewer measures in place, there is an improvement in how these students are identified and the interventions in place. The intervention measures face complications such as a lack of a nationwide agency dealing with these needs due to merging the government agencies to a single one. Thus, there are gaps in response to the needs of children with learning disabilities.

Research Problem

There are insufficient measures to enhance early interventions for the children with learning disabilities from the literature. Identification is a very important step in finding children who have specific learning problems. The goal is to get them the treatment and support they need to do well in and out of school. In most cases, the first signs of specific learning problems start to show up in kindergarten or even before. After the end of kindergarten or before the first grade, identification is not often done in Ireland. Many students are not properly identified as having specific learning difficulties for a long time, making it hard for them to get help. That is especially true for kids who depict higher intelligence. Thus, although the literature shows the situation of the early interventions in the schools for children with learning disabilities, there is a lack of evidence on why many students are not in any special programs. This research aims to identify the factors that lead to poor interventions for children with learning disabilities and make recommendations on the best way for Ireland to improve the situation.

Research Hypothesis

HO- Ireland lacks efficient interventions for children with learning disabilities.

H1- Ireland has efficient interventions for children with learning disabilities.

Research Methods

Research Design

Both qualitative and quantitative research design will be used to solve the problem stated in this research effectively. The qualitative research method uses the interpretivist paradigm, theories, and the researcher's knowledge to help answer the research question by looking at the meanings people or groups give to a social or human problem. The written report or presentation at the end of the research will include the participants' input, the researcher's thoughts, a description and interpretation of the problem, and how the research changed the literature. Qualitative methods are used to figure out why people do what they do. This will allow the researcher to understand better the underlying reasons, attitudes, and motivations behind the chosen research area. People's views, opinions, feelings, and beliefs will be taken into account in this study by applying both the qualitative and quantitative aspects. This will allow the researcher to learn about how the participants and the level of early interventions in Ireland relate to children with learning disabilities. Many qualitative studies on the varying levels of interventions in children with learning disabilities are available. Still, few studies look at the aspects that make it hard for Ireland to enhance these interventions in schools. Thus, the qualitative research will focus on reviewing the literature to identify the research gap and the problems facing early intervention in children with intellectual disabilities in Ireland. The quantitative research will be an online survey carried out to get first-hand information on the reasons Ireland lags behind in enhancing early interventions in children with intellectual disabilities compared to UK. The survey will be carried out by inviting the teachers from the available privately owned schools to explain the challenges they think make it hard for the country to adopt early interventions.

Sample Strategy

The participants in this research will be the teachers working in various privately owned special education schools that deal with children with learning disabilities. The schools will be selected randomly in the country to establish a sufficient sample size for the research. The aim will be to speak to the teachers on the challenges they face and their understanding of the country's level of commitment in ensuring children with learning disabilities had equal opportunities to learn like the others. The total sample size for the study will include 50 teachers.

Pre-testing

For understanding the research effectiveness, the research questionnaire will be developed first and tested on the ability to collect the right information by using a sample of 10 students. The aim will be to ensure that when issued to the main participants, it can convey the right information intended by the researcher to avoid bias. However, this research is limited in geographical reach and the scope of the question. It will only involve data collection in Ireland on early interventions in children with learning disabilities.

Role of Researcher

In this case, the researcher's role is to attempt to access the thoughts of the participants on the research questions through the use of a research questionnaire. The researcher is also supposed to source, vet and orient the participants to ensure they understand the aim of the research. However, the researcher is not supposed to influence the responses given by the participants.

Data Gathering Tools

The research will include an online survey where the participants who will be teachers selected from different privately owned special schools will have to fill out the questionnaire sent to them through their e-mails. Since it is an online survey, the information gathered will be stored in this form until the researcher receives all the responses and analyzes them using different statistical approaches to determine whether the results support the research hypothesis or the alternative hypothesis.

Ethical Implications and Actions

The research will maintain the ethical standards to avoid a breach of the school's established ethical rules. Thus, all the participants will be required to fill out a consent form to show that they have agreed to participate in the study. This will be required before the questionnaire is e-mailed to the participants who have signed the consent form. Secondly, all the participants will be contacted first using the available information about the different schools dealing with special children in Ireland. An e-mail will be sent to the schools with a request to participate in the study and a consent form. Those that agree will have to e-mail back with a signed consent form. The research will also be aligned with the IT policy statement on ethics and international good practice.

The privacy and confidentiality of the participants in this study are important. Thus, all the participants will be required not to include their names, ages, or the schools in which they are working. This will help to keep the responses anonymous. At the same time, the participant will be assured that the information provided will be used for this study alone. All the provided information will be destroyed using the approved methods when it is completed. To enhance confidentiality, only the researcher will have access to the raw data and perform an analysis. Thus, there is no risk of the information falling into a third party and exposing the identity or the information provided.

References

Agrawal, J., Barrio, B. L., Kressler, B., Hsiao, Y. J., & Shankland, R. K. (2019). International Policies, Identification, and Services for Students with Learning Disabilities: An Exploration across 10 Countries. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, 17(1), 95-113. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1218057

Anglim, J., Prendeville, P., & Kinsella, W. (2018). The self-efficacy of primary teachers in supporting the inclusion of children with autism spectrum disorder. Educational psychology in practice, 34(1), 73-88. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02667363.2017.1391750

Burns, K., & McGregor, C. (2019). Child protection and welfare systems in Ireland: Continuities and discontinuities of the present. In National Systems of Child Protection (pp. 115-138). Springer, Cham. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-93348-1_7

Byrne, B., & Lundy, L. (2019). Children's rights-based childhood policy: A six-P framework. The International Journal of Human Rights, 23(3), 357-373. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13642987.2018.1558977

Giri, A., Aylott, J., Giri, P., Ferguson‐Wormley, S., & Evans, J. (2022). Lived experience and the social model of disability: conflicted and inter‐dependent ambitions for employment of people with a learning disability and their family carers. British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 50(1), 98-106. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bld.12378

Kenny, N., McCoy, S., & Mihut, G. (2020). Special education reforms in Ireland: changing systems, changing schools. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1-20. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13603116.2020.1821447

McCoy, S., Shevlin, M., & Rose, R. (2020). Secondary school transition for students with special educational needs in Ireland. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 35(2), 154-170. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08856257.2019.1628338

Moore, J. R., Hankins, S., & Doughty, S. E. (2020). Successful employees with disabilities through the lens of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory: A case study at sephora. The Journal of Business Diversity, 20(5), 10-19. http://t.www.na-businesspress.com/JBD/JBD20-5/1_MooreFinal.pdf

Morsanyi, K., van Bers, B. M., McCormack, T., & McGourty, J. (2018). The prevalence of specific learning disorder in mathematics and comorbidity with other developmental disorders in primary school‐age children. British Journal of Psychology, 109(4), 917-940. https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bjop.12322

Muddle, S., McElwee, J., Vincent, R., Birdsey, N., & Best, L. (2022). Talking with parents of children with learning disabilities: Parents' ideas about the Circle of Security parenting programme. British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 50(1), 19-28. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bld.12371

O'Neill, S. J., Smyth, S., Smeaton, A., & O'Connor, N. E. (2020). Assistive technology: Understanding the needs and experiences of individuals with autism spectrum disorder and/or intellectual disability in Ireland and the UK. Assistive Technology, 32(5), 251-259. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10400435.2018.1535526

Robinson, L., Bond, C., & Oldfield, J. (2018). A UK and Ireland survey of educational psychologists' intervention practices for students with autism spectrum disorder. Educational Psychology in Practice, 34(1), 58-72. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02667363.2017.1391066

Roddy, A., & O'Neill, C. (2019). The economic costs and its predictors for childhood autism spectrum disorders in Ireland: How is the burden distributed?. Autism, 23(5), 1106-1118. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1362361318801586

Walsh, E., Holloway, J., & Lydon, H. (2018). An evaluation of a social skills intervention for adults with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disabilities preparing for employment in Ireland: A pilot study. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 48(5), 1727-1741. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-017-3441-5