Prioritising rehabilitation in early childhood for inclusive education: a call to action

Abstract

Purpose

This commentary examines the provisions for early childhood development (ECD) in the global action plan for rehabilitation published by the World Health Organisation (WHO) within the context of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for inclusive education.

Methods

The meeting reports of the WHO Rehabilitation 2030 for 2017 and 2019 and the related documents were reviewed along with ECD policy documents from WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, and the World Bank.

Results

The importance of a life-course approach to rehabilitation for the health and wellbeing of persons with disabilities was highlighted in the Rehabilitation 2030. However, the critical and foundational role of rehabilitation in ECD for children with disabilities to facilitate inclusive education, especially in low- and middle-income countries as envisioned by the SDG 4.2, was not clearly addressed. Children under 5 years with developmental delays and disabilities who are not developmentally on track in health and psychosocial wellbeing require timely rehabilitation to ensure that they benefit from inclusive education.

Conclusions

The culture and practice of rehabilitation should be nurtured from infancy as an indispensable component of ECD to adequately prepare children with developmental disabilities for inclusive education and ensure effective rehabilitation services over the life course.

IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION

• Rehabilitation is an integral and critical component of early childhood development to optimise school readiness for children with developmental disabilities.

• Routine newborn screening, developmental assessment, and surveillance of children from birth are foundational to any effective rehabilitation in early childhood.

• Global investment to promote and support rehabilitation services from early childhood within the health systems and across all levels of service delivery including community settings is warranted to achieve the sustainable development goals for children with disabilities.

Keywords:

• Childhood disability
• developmental disabilities
• early intervention
• inclusion
• inclusive education
• global health
• SDG

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).