📄 Pages: 16-18 🏷️ Perceptions 📅 January-March 2026

Background: Developmental disability due to neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) are major public health problems globally. Developmental delay can be an early indicator in identification of children who may experience a disability.Early intervention (EI) programmes support these young children who are at risk of developmental delay. Early diagnosis and early intervention, becomes very important measure in preventing disability among these children hence parent’s awareness regarding the developmental disability and early intervention becomes the prime indicator towards seeking timely healthcare service. So this study aimed to check the level of awareness and knowledge among parents regarding developmental disability and early intervention.
Materials and methods: Seventyseven parents and caregivers of infants and children who were either at risk of developmental disability or diagnosed with developmental disability were interviewed through a structured questionnaire to understand their knowledge, attitude and level of awareness regarding developmental disability and early intervention.
Results- This study observed very poor level of knowledge about the developmental disability (26%) and limited awareness regarding early intervention (8%) among parents. knowledge among healthcare professional regarding role of early intervention was also scarce.
Conclusion: Overall knowledge and awareness regarding developmental disability and early intervention was very poor among parents. Incidental finding of limited level of awareness among the healthcare professionals was also noted influencing timely referral and health seeking behavior among the parents for early intervention.