Improving Access to Early Childhood Developmental Surveillance for Children from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Background

Year Published:

Abstract

Introduction: Developmental vulnerabilities in pre-school aged children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds with low English proficiency are less likely to be identified through universal developmental surveillance. Barriers include low parental health literacy and low rates of attendance to mainstream child and family health services. Late detection of developmental vulnerabilities can have lifelong impacts on life trajectory. Method: Integrated outreach early childhood developmental surveillance was trialled in South East Sydney by local health services with non-government organisations (NGO) delivering early childhood education and support. NGO staff were trained in Parents Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS), a validated developmental screening tool to explore parental/carer and provider concerns [1]. Families with children identified with developmental concerns by NGO staff were referred to co-located or visiting Child and Family Health Nurses (CFHN), community child health, speech pathology or developmental services for developmental screening, assessment and/or care planning. Results: Integrated health and NGO services improved access to developmental surveillance for CALD families in a non-threatening environment enabled by co-locating CFHN, or through visits by paediatric medical/speech pathology staff to participating playgroups. Conclusions and discussion: Integration supported vulnerable families from CALD backgrounds to access developmental surveillance through child and family health services but required flexibility and adjustments by all involved.

Citation

Relevant Evidence Summaries

The evidence was reviewed and included in the following summaries: 

No posts found.

About this study

AGE: Multiple Age Groups

DIRECTION OF EVIDENCE: Positive impact

FULL TEXT AVAILABILITY: Free

HOST COUNTRY: Australia

HOST COUNTRY INCOME: High

INTERVENTION DURATION: NA

INTERVENTION: Co-location of services with an existing community support

POPULATION: Immigrants

REGION OF ORIGIN OF PARTICIPANT(S): Multiple Regions

STRENGTH OF EVIDENCE: Suggestive

TYPE OF STUDY: Suggestive evidence

YEAR PUBLISHED: 2020

More STUDIES

Primary substance use prevention programs for children and youth: A systematic review

An updated synthesis of research on substance abuse prevention programs can promote enhanced uptake of programs with proven effectiveness, particularly when paired with information relevant to practitioners and policy makers.To assess the strength of the scientific evidence for psychoactive substance abuse prevention programs for school-aged children and youth.A systematic review was conducted of studies published…

A systematic review of qualitative research on substance use among refugees

Aims To evaluate qualitative research on substance use and substance use disorders (SUDs) among refugees in terms of practitioners’ and substance users’ attitudes, beliefs and experiences. Methods Six medical, allied health and social sciences databases (EBSCO, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, Scholar and the Cochrane Library) were systematically searched in a time frame between January…

The impact of a parent-based prevention intervention on Mexican-descent youths’ perceptions of harm associated to drug use: Differential intervention effects for male and female youths

Parent training (PT) interventions reduce the likelihood of youth problematic behaviors, including drug use. However, the dissemination of culturally adapted PT interventions in low‐income Latina/o immigrant communities remains scarce. In this selective prevention study, we examined the extent to which exposure to CAPAS‐Youth, a culturally adapted version of the PT intervention known as GenerationPMTO©, resulted…