Response of the Spanish Early Interventionto the Lockdown Situation due to COVID-19

ABSTRACT

The extraordinary situation of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the lockdown and interruption of the usual Early Intervention (EI) services, although families and children still needed support. The Spanish professionals reacted quickly, reorganizing the intervention, experimenting with the possibilities of tele-intervention and sharing knowledge and experiences. This work reviews the resources generated, in relation to EI, during the first five weeks of lockdown (from March 13). This work also reviews opinions and feelings that were shared by professionals. 72 resources were identified, provided through social networks documents (33), videoconferences and online seminars (32) and applications or web resources (8). Its characteristics, timing, orientation to families or professionals, and its alignment with a paradigm of intervention centered on the family or the child are analyzed. The opinions and feelings of the professionals are analyzed in reference to the resources provided, the needs observed in the families, the problems in tele-intervention and in the face of the approach to return to a "new normality". The results obtained complement the vision of families about the situation generated by the lockdown, which has been collected in other works. It concludes on the good health of EI in Spain and the need to deepen the proactive involvement of the family in the intervention team. © 2021 University of Salamanca. All rights reserved.