Identifying young children with disabilities as early as possible through systematic and comprehensive procedures is important for early intervention and early childhood special education. Providing services, not only to young children with disabiliti...
Identifying young children with disabilities as early as possible through systematic and comprehensive procedures is important for early intervention and early childhood special education. Providing services, not only to young children with disabilities but also to young children with developmental delays or at-risk for disabilities, is emphasized in order to prevent disabilities and facilitate child development. To provide comprehensive and coordinated services to young children with special needs and their families, a tracking system is needed to ensure that they receive continuous and appropriate services to improve health and developmental outcome. The purpose of this research was to suggest the future direction of a tracking system in Korea for identifying young children with disabilities and facilitating comprehensive services. First, several areas are identified such as the compositions and roles of an integrated, collaborative tracking system, issues of the tracking system, trends in the development of integrated tracking systems and data collection, and the roles of parents with respect to a tracking system. Second, the following areas for development are suggested: a) a referral system to identify young children with disabilities; b) definitions and criteria for including a child in the tracking system; c) system to register, track, and manage identified infants and young; and d) a community-based collaborative interagency committee which would be responsible for the tracking system. To facilitate organizing of the committee, it is suggested that an integrated tracking database management system be developed through interagency collaboration.