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Delaware
First Signs launched in April 2005 in collaboration with the Autism Society of Delaware, Delaware
Department of Health & Social Services, Delaware
Developmental Disabilities Council and University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Here we provide information
about the program, links to articles in the press, and numerous
Web-related disability resources for Delaware.
Delaware First Signs Program
Delaware Training
Delaware Evaluation Study
Delaware First Signs in the News
Delaware Disability Resources
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Delaware First Signs Program
Delaware First
Signs launched in April 2005. The
Autism
Society of Delaware,
Delaware Department of Health & Social Services,
Delaware
Developmental Disabilities Council,
University
of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and First Signs, Inc.
collaborated
in this statewide initiative. The Delaware
First Signs program offered
professional training, parent outreach, and public education.
The Delaware First
Signs program was funded by:
The Delaware First Signs
program was endorsed by:
- American Academy of Pediatrics, Delaware Chapter
The objectives of the Delaware First Signs program were to:
- Increase knowledge of early warning signs among pediatric
practitioners in Delaware to raise their level of awareness
- Improve frequency and quality of screening young children
- Facilitate timely referral of children in Delaware to
local Early Intervention programs
- Lower the age at which children are identified with
autism and other developmental disorders in Delaware
The Delaware First Signs program consisted of:
- Press campaign
- Mailings to more than 2,000 health care providers and
early childhood educators inviting them to participate in a
training seminar, receive continuing education credits, and
a First Signs Screening Kit
- 2 regional training seminars
- Page on our Web site dedicated to Delaware resources
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Delaware Training
First Signs
presented a three-hour training course,
“Improving Developmental Screening Practices for Young Children
with Autism & Other Developmental Disorders” in two
regional locations in Delaware. These training courses were
held on April 26 at
Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington from
8:30 am-12:00 noon and at
Delaware Tech
in Dover from 8:30 am-12:00 noon.
Click here for more
information about the training.
This activity was planned and
implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and Policies
of the
Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME)
through the joint sponsorship of the University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine, Autism Society of Delaware, Delaware
Department of Health & Social Services, Delaware Developmental
Disabilities Council, and First Signs, Inc. The
University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine is accredited by the ACCME
to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
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Delaware Evaluation Study
The evaluation study was conducted by First Signs,
University of Pennsylvania, and Autism Society of Delaware.
Evaluation questions
- Are we
improving knowledge of best developmental screening practices
for young children with autism and other developmental
disorders?
Evaluation strategy
- Compare results from pre- and post-tests to measure
knowledge gained from a single training session
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Delaware Evaluation Study Results
The Delaware First Signs program
trained 139 healthcare providers, clinicians, and educators
in two training presentations. 85% completed both pre- and
post-tests and of these, 89% improved their overall score. First
Signs provided outreach trainings to over 30 professionals from
all over the state to expand their training for local outreach
efforts. Delaware established three county-based outreach teams,
consisting of one physician, an early interventionist, and one
parent of a child with autism, to provide training on a local
basis in all three counties. To date, they have completed more
than 30 training presentations across the state, distributed
First Signs screening materials throughout, and incorporated the
First Signs training curricula into the Delaware Psychiatric
Center (New Castle) lecture series on Disability and Mental
Health for Psychiatric residents. In addition, Delaware has
provided training materials and First Signs Screening Kits to
every nursing program in the state, along with two training
sessions to 130 nursing students at Del Tech.
In her final report, Theda Ellis, Executive Director of Autism
Society of Delaware (ASD), states: "We have been successful in
raising awareness of the issue of the need for better early
diagnosis and the availability of effective parent screening
tools. A major success has been to secure a major provider
(Nemours) to enroll in the process as well as to alert the State
Insurance Commissioner of the issues. Our efforts, along with
more national studies, are creating a more fertile environment
for change to take place. ASD will continue to support this
effort through the summer of 2006 with funds available through
the Lower Delaware Autism Foundation, and we will continue to
staff training even following the completion of the project as
requested.
The Autism Society is currently investigating how we can
continue this project through our own organization and
resources. The teams are up and running and well trained. The
key is to consistently make presentations in medical programs,
at conferences and workshops, and in local offices. We also plan
to continue to monitor the use of the billing codes over time to
determine that practices are actually using the codes, which
means they are using the tools."
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Delaware First Signs in the News
To
read all news articles related to First Signs, visit our
Press Center.
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