Preterm Infants: Parenting Implications and Perspectives in Early Childhood Special Education

Abstract

Preterm birth is an event that affects about 30,000 children a year, only in Italy. The great progress carried out in the context of neonatology (especially in recent decades) drastically reduced the risk of mortality. However, it should be reminded that these children may have a high risk of developing such serious complications which could potentially lead to permanent pathologies or disabilities, especially for those born to lower gestational ages (WHO, 2015). This contribution intends to analyze the phenomenon of prematurity according to the parenting and educational-teaching dimension. Premature parents, in fact, are immersed in a situation to which they were not prepared and which could interrupt or threaten the harmonious relationship with the newborn. For this reason, interdisciplinary synergistic actions should also be promoted in a way which calls Special Education both in direct support to families and in the preparation of generative welfare actions affecting educators and teachers, as valuable allies in early intervention and in the implementation of fully inclusive and efficient educational services for early childhood.