From its inception, the inclusive education project recognised the importance of early intervention. This was reaffirmed in the statement produced in 2022 on the rights of children with disabilities by the joint working group on the Convention of the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This statement states that “early intervention, accessible learning environments, and individual support must be provided in all phases of education process for ensuring inclusive education” (UN, 2022, p. 3).

Despite this longstanding recognition of its crucial role, early intervention has been peripheral in the inclusive education literature, which has focused its critical attention predominantly on schooling and formal education. There are inherent complexities in capturing the remit of early intervention, what early intervention is, and where is located across different fields, with education being one of them. Often the early part of early intervention is seen as prior to education, or the intervention part is located outside of education. As the boundaries of education have expanded to a from birth, lifelong endeavour, this paper argues that understanding the foundational role of early intervention is imperative. What is inclusive about early intervention and how it relates to inclusive education are questions explored in this paper.

Early intervention is a specialised, multidisciplinary, loosely delineated field that provides targeted and individualised support to groups of young children and their families. It originated in the 1960s and is concerned with children whose development is perceived as at risk because of environmental or biological factors, including disability. Early childhood education, maternal and child health services, special education, and child development research contributed to the development of early intervention as an applied field (Meisels and Shonkoff, 2000). Different models of how to organise and provide early intervention have been proposed (Dunst, 1985). These models identify core principles, such as family-centred, culturally responsive, strengths-based practice in inclusive and authentic environments, with a recognition that existing practice often doesn’t exhibit these principles (Dunst, 1985) and that early intervention is a diverse enterprise (Dunst, 1996). The premise of at risk that is foundational to early intervention has been critiqued from a Disability Studies in Education perspective by interrogating its role in reproducing ableist, classist and racist constructions of normalcy (Ferri & Bacon, 2011; Love & Beneke, 2021; Mutua, 2001).

This conceptual paper starts from the notion that the provision of early intervention intends to shape the lifelong experience of disability and in doing this it gives new expressions to it. In doing so, early intervention and its transformative potential raise questions about inclusion and exclusion with implications for inclusive education. The paper explores and presents the divergent relationships between early intervention and inclusive education: a) early intervention independent from education, b) early intervention in education and c) early intervention for inclusive education. The latter is related to General Comment 4 on the Rights to Inclusive Education (United Nations, 2016) as a whole-person approach with the ‘provision of support and reasonable accommodation and early intervention’ aiming to end segregation stating that “all such interventions must guarantee respect for the dignity and autonomy of the child” (p. 21). The paper discusses the characteristics of early intervention for inclusive education and discusses the challenges surrounding its implementation. 

This paper systematically approaches the relationship between early intervention and inclusive education to present a conceptual framework that captures the complexity of this relationship. It aims to answer the questions: • What is early intervention? • How does it relate to inclusive education? • What kind of early intervention can promote inclusive education? According to Rocco and Plakhotnik (2009) conceptual papers “define the concept, map the research terrain or conceptual scope, systematize relations among concepts, and identify gaps in literature” (p. 128). As a conceptual paper, it doesn’t include a distinct empirical component. It engages however with a range of sources to develop its argument. These include in-depth engagement with relevant international treaties and General Comments, existing models of early intervention implementation and existing literature. This paper starts from the premise that there is limited research that critically examines early intervention and inclusive education. Most literature on early intervention focuses on particular approaches or types of interventions instead of early intervention's function in reinforcing ways of normality (Payne, Proctor, & Spandagou, 2022). The first part of the paper focuses on defining the concept of early intervention in the context of inclusive education in terms of a) existing literature, b) international policy and c) models of implementation. The paper then proposes a model of a) early intervention independent from education, b) early intervention in education and c) early intervention for inclusive education. The third part of the presentation focuses on early intervention for inclusive education and discusses its characteristics, potential and challenges, and implications for research.

This conceptual paper presents a model for understanding the relationship between early intervention and inclusive education. This model allows us to explore an area of great interest but of limited research. In proposing the necessity to challenge deeply entrenched individualistic, deficit-oriented responses to disability, the paper identifies a series of tensions: a) the loci of early intervention (health, education, social), b) the focus of support as universal, targeted, and individual, c) the focus on the individual, family, environment, and system, d) the context and process of decision making and e) the models of fundings and resourcing. The paper concludes that early intervention is not sufficient for inclusive education reform but it has the potential to be a powerful driver. However, this requires constructing early intervention as a systemic reform tool which is far from its current state.

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