SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW ON MODELS AND PRACTICES OF EARLY CHILDHOOD INTERVENTION IN BRAZIL

ABSTRACT

Objective:

To identify which Early Childhood Intervention practices and models are described in the Brazilian literature.

Data sources:

A systematic integrative review of the literature indexed in databases from Virtual Health Library, Bielefeld Academic Search Engine, Education Resources Information Center and Portal of Periodicals of the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel was carried out, considering the period between 2005 and 2015. The following articles were analyzed: those published in English or Portuguese, fully available online, with the terms “Early Intervention”, “Early Stimulation” or “Essential Stimulation” in the title, abstract or keywords; studies that enrolled children aged from 0 to 6 years, their caregivers or professionals in Early Intervention services; manuscripts published in journals classified as ≥ B2 (WebQualis; Qualis 2014) in the fields of Education or Physical Education; and studies that described Early Intervention practices.

Data synthesis:

Early Intervention seems to be developed exclusively related to the health sector, with prevalence of practices aimed at stimulating skills through the use of clinical approaches, whose focus is centered on the child and structured in the model of rehabilitative care.

Conclusions:

The adoption of Early Intervention practices and models are far from those recommended and recognized by the international literature as good practices. In this sense, the need of continuous education of professionals involved in this area is shown, as well the need for investments in research on this subject.

Keywords:
Early intervention; Childhood; Rehabilitation; Development; Health