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Table 1 Chronicles of the Development of Early Intervention Service for Children with Developmental Delay

From: The Development and Current Situation of the Early Intervention for Children with Developmental Delay in Taiwan

Time

Events

1993

The amendment of Child Welfare Law was passed, the EIS for children with developmental delay and their family was taken under the protection of this law for the first time.

1994

The byelaw for the implementation of Child Welfare Law was amended, and the definition of “developmental delay” and “early intervention” were defined.

1995

• The Ministry of the Interior established a work team for the promotion of the development of early intervention for children with mentally developmental delay, which adopted an interdepartmental approach to promote the development of early intervention.

• The national healthcare insurance was established.

• The Department of Health opened the “Children Preventive Healthcare Service.”

The Department of Health and the Ministry of Education jointly opened the “Screening plan for amblyopia in preschool children.”

1996

The Department of Health, together with education and social welfare system jointly opened “Health Management Plan for Children in Kindergartens and Nurseries.”

1997

• The amendment of the Special Education Law was passed and the school age of special education students was adjusted downward to 3. Such change will be gradually fulfilled in 6 years.

The Ministry of the Interior selected Taipei City, Taichung County, Tainan City, Kaoshiong City and Hualian County to carry out trials on “service for the report & referral of early intervention to children with developmental delay and the case management.”

1997

• The Department of Health selected Taipei municipal maternal and child hospital, the affiliated hospital of Tainan Cheng Kung University, the affiliated hospital of Kaoshiong Medical University, the affiliated hospital of Hualian Tzu-Chi Medical University to set up the “Center of Team Evaluation for Children’s Development for Children with Developmental Delay.”

• The Ministry of the Interior promulgated “the Implementation plan of early intervention service for children with developmental delay.”

1999

The CWB was founded, which took over the administration of issues concerning the EIS for children with developmental delay from Department of Social Affair, Ministry of the Interior

2000

• The “Implementation plan of early intervention service for children with developmental delay” was amended.

2001

• The CWB was entrusted the compilation of “Service manual for the report & referral center of children with developmental delay.”

• The Ministry of Education promulgated the “key points to the implementation of transition service for mentally or physically disabled students at various educational stages.”

2002

• The Ministry of Education promulgated the “key points to the implementation of special education work for students at preschool or national education stages.”

2003

• The “plan for the subsidy of intervention expenses to children with developmental delay” was promulgated.

• The CWB finished the construction of the “individual cases management information system of the early intervention for children with developmental delay.”

• The “plan for the integration of early intervention resources for children with developmental delay” was promulgated.

2004

• The Child Welfare Law and the Youth Welfare Law were amended and merged as “Child and Youth Welfare Law”

• The “standard for the establishment of welfare institutions for child and juvenile” was formulated.

• The “qualification of professionals in welfare institutions for child and youth and their training” was formulated.

• The “plan of the at-home service for children with developmental delay” was promulgated.

2004

• The “professional guidance tours for nursery institutions to accept children with developmental delay” was promulgated.

• The “plan for nursery institutions to accept children with developmental delay” was promulgated.

• The Department of Health unveiled its “management plan for the screening of children with developmental delay and the tracing of suspected individual cases”

2005–2007

• The “Center of Team Evaluation for Children’s Development for children with developmental delay” was renamed to “Center of Team Evaluation for Children’s Development” where the word “delay” was deleted.

• The “Head Start for preschool children from foreign spouse families or disadvantaged families” was promulgated.

• The Department of Health appointed more “evaluation hospitals” to speed up the process of the evaluation of the development of children.

  1. Note. From Child Welfare Data [public notice] Child Welfare Bureau, 2006