Early Childhood Intervention in Times of COVID-19: Exploring the Reality/ies of Tele-interventionin Family-Centred Practices (FCP)

ABSTRACT

TRASCIENDE, as a research team, arose from the need to articulate a collaborative project between Full Inclusion-CLM and the UCLM for social, scientific, academic, and professional transformation in the field of disability, inclusion, and citizenship. As a result of the socio-health situation provoked by COVID-19, the TRASCIENDE team has been involved in the social change produced by confinement, necessarily developing a role of observer of the change. This global situation leads us to ask ourselves questions that aim to initiate research processes in practice how has this confinement affected practices in early care? To answer this question we decided to adopt a qualitative research perspective to explore the perceptions of families and professionals (speech therapists, physiotherapists, stimulators and coordinators) of Early Care teams, their difficulties and their strengths in this situation of change. The work describes a process of exploring practices during the first months of confinement, practices that have been directed, in many cases, towards tele-intervention. Data has been collected through ethnographic interviews (families) and focus groups (professionals) and has been processed through thematic analysis (Attride-Stirling, 2001). The results show the perception of families and professionals articulated in three thematic network focuses the personal and collective reaction to the new situation, what can remain of the tele-intervention (with its nuances) and what underlies the practices in this modality. The study also opens new lines of future research which evidence the difficulty of the process of transformation towards actual family-centred models. © 2021 University of Salamanca. All rights reserved.