Background:

        The family-centered early intervention provided developmental delay children with integrative resources to assist in their development. However, caregivers' lack of knowledge of children’s developmental milestones or of early intervention–related services available to them could delay the diagnosis and treatment of these children. This, together with the aim to bridge the urban-rural gap of medical and health education resources, inspired this study to explore the efficacy of an early intervention forum provided by an interdisciplinary team in rural areas.

Methods:

        A forum was conducted in a district teaching hospital in Tainan City. The speakers of the forum included a doctor, a clinical psychologist, a speech therapist, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, and a social worker. The forum topics encompassed the developmental process of the child, the service content of each discipline, and ways to access information and resources. The participants were asked to complete a pretest and posttest before and after the forum, respectively, through the short version of the Parent’s Perceived Parenting Skills Questionnaire which comprised four dimensions. A paired t-test was performed to verify any statistically significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores.

Results:

        A total of 43 valid responses were collected. The analysis results revealed that the participants scored significantly higher in the “ability to obtain early intervention resources” (t = 8.248, p < .05) and “confidence of being parents” (t = 3.089, p < .05) dimensions in the posttest than they did in the pretest. In other words, the parents knew better how they could seek resources and felt more in control of their parenting skills after attending the forum. No significant difference was found in the “understand the development and condition of the child” and “knowing how to assist development” between the pretest and posttest.

Conclusion:

        For some of the rural-area caregivers who had insufficient understanding of early intervention resources, felt directionless in parenting, and showed a lack of confidence in parenting, this study recommended that accessible and available health information be provided to them so that early intervention services could be used to their full potential.