Promoting Health and Development for At-Risk Infants and Toddlers

By the time healthy, typically developing children reach age 3, they will have developed the essential cognitive, language and social-emotional competencies that lay the foundation for future success. If children experience delays during this critical period, early intervention can help maintain an appropriate developmental trajectory.

Infants and toddlers in poverty, however, experience a higher rate of developmental delay than that of their economically stable peers. For these children, delays often appear in multiple areas of development and are frequently accompanied by medical conditions as well. Moreover, the effects of developmental delay for low-income children are exacerbated by the social complexities associated with poverty, such as restricted access to developmental and healthcare services as well as parental supports. 

Unfortunately, existing systems of care that address these delays are not well integrated, further complicating the delivery of appropriate, effective care to children who need it most, said Patricia Manz, professor of School Psychology. Research in this area has been minimal thus far. 

Manz and a team of faculty in the College of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences have received a $100,000 accelerator grant from Lehigh to tackle the issue of Synergy of Care, which the team describes as “the concentration of integrated early- intervention services on mutual goals, actions, outcomes and accountability for low-income infants and toddlers who are at risk for or have been diagnosed with health conditions and developmental delay.” 

The project, titled “Synergy of Care: Promoting Healthy Development among Vulnerable Infants and Toddlers through Research, Practice and Policy,” will involve a qualitative foundational study to examine state policies and the service provision procedures of major healthcare, educational and family support services for low-income infants and toddlers at risk for health and developmental issues. 

“Some people think of integrated care as just the communication between systems that are located in different areas and they refer to each other. That’s really not integrated care,” said George DuPaul, professor of School Psychology and co-investigator on the project. “Integrated care, true integrated care, is where you have professionals from different backgrounds working hand in hand on cases at systemic levels. So it’s not just co-location… It’s where they actually conceptualize cases together. And I don’t think there are many places that are truly integrated yet.”

Each team member brings a particular expertise to the project, including policy analysis, early intervention  and integrated behavioral health. The team’s first step in summer 2017 was to explore existing programs and policies to determine the project’s direction.