The National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC) has prepared The Important of Early Intervention for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities and Their Families (July 2011), a fact sheet which provides a brief overview of the Infants and Toddler with Disabilities Program (Part C) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and quick facts from the research on early brain development, the importance of intervening early, the benefits of early intervention, and current unmet needs.
Part C of the IDEA was created in 1986 to enhance the development of infants and toddlers with disabilities, minimize potential developmental delay, and reduce educational costs to our society by minimizing the need for special education services as children with disabilities reach school age. The NECTAC fact sheet is intended to be used as a tool to communicate with policymakers, pediatricians, families, and community leaders about the importance of high quality services for infants and toddlers with or at risk for developmental delays and their families. The take-away messages included in the fact sheet are that:
- High-quality early intervention programs for vulnerable infants/toddlers can reduce the future incidents of problems related to children’s learning, behavior, and health.
- There is an urgent and significant need to identify infants/toddlers who may need services as early as possible and ensure that intervention is provided when a child’s brain is most capable of change.
- Most often, intervention is more effective and less costly if it is provided earlier in life, not later.
NECTAC is program of the FPG Child Development Institute at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is supported through a cooperative agreement with the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in the U.S. Department of Education (ED).
