Growing Together

The early childhood period is considered to be the most important developmental phase which determines the well-being, quality of health, learning and social-emotional behaviour across the life span. Extensive research has shown that high quality early childhood intervention (ECI) services can change a child’s developmental trajectory and improve outcomes for children, families, and communities at large. At the same time, ECI is likely to be more effective and less costly for national governments when it is provided at an earlier stage than later on in the lifetime.
In order to comply with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, national governments have the obligation to develop and put in place age-appropriate support for children with disabilities to enable their full enjoyment of rights on an equal basis with other children.
Developing quality community-based ECI services requires a variety of elements: policies that support the set-up of sustainable ECI programmes and services at local, regional and national level; well-trained professionals; innovative services and therapies rooted in biomedical and behaviour research; family-focused support, so on and so forth.
By bringing together various stakeholders in the ECI field, such as family organisations, organisations of persons with disabilities, disability service providers, researchers and policy makers at national and international level, the conference will take a critical look at the development of national strategies needed to set up quality community-based ECI services both in Western and Central and Eastern European countries. Furthermore, it will extensively focus on the exchange of know-how and best practices in ECI throughout Europe and beyond.
The overall objectives of the conference are:
- Mutual learning and transnational exchange between various stakeholders working in ECI;
- Sharing of innovative methods and models to strengthen the development of sustainable community-based ECI services;
- Identifying barriers in legislation, training of professionals, funding systems and other challenges hindering the provision of quality support in the ECI field

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