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Glossary
Assessment, Evaluation, and Programming System
for Infants and Children (AEPS).
The AEPS® Test developed
by Prof. Bricker et al., at the University of Oregon - allows
professionals to gather assessment data for one child or
a group of children in home- or center-based settings. The
primary purpose of the AEPS is to assist professionals and
parents/caregivers in identifying and monitoring children’s
developmentally appropriate educational targets and plan-
ning individualized intervention.
Ages & Stages Questionnaires (ASQ)
has been developed
in the 1970ies by Prof. Diane Bricker, Ph.D., at the University
of Oregon. It is a developmental screening tool designed for
use by early educators and health care professionals. It cre-
ates the snapshot needed to catch delays in development,
highlights a child’s strengths as well as concerns.
Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD)
is a field
of endeavour that focuses on supporting young children’s
development. Early Childhood encompasses the period of
human development from prenatal through the transition
from home or ECCD centre into the early primary grades
(prenatal – 8 years of age). Based on research, ECCD links
the young child’s cognitive, social, emotional, and physical
processes with the Care (by families, communities and the
nation) required to support that development.
Early childhood development (ECD)
is the key to a full
and productive life for a child. Early childhood (defined as
between 0 and 8 years old) is a critical stage of development
that forms the foundation for children's future well-being and
learning.
Early childhood intervention (ECI)
is a support and educa-
tional system for very young children (aged birth to six years)
who have been victims of, or who are at high risk for child
abuse and/or neglect. Early childhood intervention came
about as a natural progression from special education for
children with disabilities in the 1990. Many early childhood
intervention support services began as research units in
universities (for example, Syracuse University in the United
States and Macquarie University in Australia) while others
were developed out of organizations helping older children.
The International Classification of Functioning, Disability
and Health (ICF)
is a classification of health and health-re-
lated domains, established by the WHO in 2001. As the
functioning and disability of an individual occurs in a context,
ICF also includes a list of environmental factors.
Individualized Education Program (IEP)
. An IEP defines the
individualized objectives of a child who has been found with
a disability. The IEP is intended to help children with special
needs to reach educational goals more easily than they
otherwise would.
Family support network.
The role of this service is to em-
power the parents to stand up for their rights and the rights
of their children. The Family Support Network includes a
group of parents who have been trained to provide early sup-
port to families who have just found out about their child’s
disability. The service provides information and psychological
or material support.
Makaton
is a language programme using signs and symbols
to help people to communicate. It is designed to support
spoken language and the signs and symbols are used with
speech, in spoken word order. With Makaton, children and
adults can communicate straight away using signs and
symbols.
Literature
ANED 2014 Task 5 – European semester country fiche on disability. Academic Network of European Disability experts
(ANED) reports on Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Ireland, Slovakia, 2014
Child Care – Early Childhood Education and Care, Article from the Encyclopaedia on Early Childhood Development, 2015
Children and Disability in Transition in Cee/Cis and Baltic States, UNICEF, 2004
Early Childhood Intervention – Progress and Developments 2005–2010, European Agency for Development in
Special Needs Education, 2010
Guide to Entitlements for People with Disabilities, Citizens Information Board Head Office Ireland, 2015
Human Developmemt Index, 2015
The Path to Inclusive Education for Children with Disabilities in Bulgaria, Ms. Blagovesta Troeva, 2014
The State of the World’s Children 2013 – Children with Disabilities, UNICEF, 2013
World Report on Disability, WHO and World Bank, 2011.