DIGITALLY DELIVERED EARLY INTERVENTION IN INDIA: WHAT HAVE WE ACHIEVED?

Introduction

When early intervention is provided to children with neurodisability parents expect an improvement in their developmental/ early years foundation skills (EYFS), self-help skills, and behaviour.

Aim

In our early intervention program (EIP) we focus on empowering parents with simple tailored and relevant information delivered on their phone app- DHRUV. Our study investigates children's improvement in the above area by addressing parental knowledge, home environment, and parental stress.

Method:

Intervention based on assessment cycle (I-BAC) was developed to profile children based on their EYFS, behaviour, and self-help skills. This automatically generates relevant video information on the parent’s app and enrols the child in an EIP. 42 children and their parents were enrolled for digitally delivered early intervention. These children were grouped automatically based on their recommended videos and delivered early intervention, in a school-based environment.

Results:

Descriptive analysis showed that 57.58% of children with autism, 50% of children with Cerebral Palsy, 100% with dyslexia, 80% with global delay, and 100% with Intellectual disability showed improvement in EYFS, self-help skills, and behaviour. The duration of early intervention ranged from 9 weeks up to 129 weeks.

Findings:

Digitally delivered early intervention increased compliance (73.41% of patients coming for one year or more), and EYFS. This model provides a low-cost, high efficacy digital platform to address parental anxiety and improve children’s EYFS. Limitation: long-term efficacy of the program needs evaluating and further longitudinal comparison studies are in progress.

Limitation:

1) We are writing these findings in the form of a research paper, to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
2) A real-world trial is needed to compare and present the effectiveness.