Examines the effects of an extra five minutes of interaction on the psychomotor and mental development of Iranian infant orphans largely deprived of opportunities to interact with caretakers and peers. Daily intervention continued for six weeks; effects were assessed after a 6-month interval. (RH)

The Infant Health and Development Program was an eight-site randomized controlled trial of comprehensive early intervention for low birthweight, premature infants from birth to age three. Higher mental development and IQ were associated with high levels of intervention participation at 24 and 36 (but not 12) months. A dose-response relation…

The 1987-88 annual report reviews progress on 17 longitudinal studies to determine the efficacy of early intervention with handicapped children. The overview chapter reviews previous research on this topic; considers ethical, practical, and scientific considerations of randomized experiments in early childhood special education; examines benefits…

Three frequently used procedures for analyzing developmental outcomes (developmental age, developmental quotient, and prediction indices) were compared using data from an early intervention program for 29 handicapped children (birth to age three). The procedures led to different conclusions regarding program effectiveness. Alternative measures of…

Investigated whether directing mothers to make weekly appointments to visit the neonatal intensive care unit would generalize to increase the frequency of independent maternal visiation and affect maternal perceptions of the infant and infants' length of hospitalization. (Author/RH)

This study evaluated the Columbus (Ohio) Children's Hospital vision stimulation program, involving in-home intervention with 15 visually impaired infants. Comparison with controls indicated benefits of appropriate vision stimulation in increasing the neural foundation for vision and visual-motor function in visually impaired infants. (Author/DB)

Findings from a national study of early intervention programs and toy libraries for handicapped children in Australia are summarized. After an introduction to theoretical concerns, chapter 2 reviews the rationale for early intervention and describes research on components of exemplary programs and on evaluation of the effectiveness of early…

Experimental group mothers reported significantly greater self-confidence and satisfaction with mothering and more favorable perception of infant temperament than did control group mothers. Differences between children on cognitive scores became significant at 36 and 48 months of age, when the experimental group caught up with normal children. (RH)

This paper reviews findings from comprehensive early intervention studies with young children with autism and formulates questions that need to be answered to establish efficacious, accessible early treatment. Results suggest that intensive, very early treatment appears to lessen the debilitating effects of autism. Research questions involve…

"Early Partners" and "Partners for Learning" is a 2-part curriculum to support parent-child interactions in the first 36 months of a premature, low birthweight child's life. Analysis showed that the rate of delivering the curriculum in the child development center and the home added significantly to the prediction of 36-month…

Children's developmental progress was studied to determine if location and types of services for handicapped preschoolers (classroom or home and classroom combined) were significantly related to child progress. Data indicated an overall trend for progress for all participating children, but neither service delivery model emerged as the superior…

The study evaluated developmental progress in three groups of infants (9-30 months) presenting Down syndrome (n=28), mild disability (n=16), or moderate/severe disabilities (n=16). To evaluate intervention impact, formulas that measure rate of development and change in rate of development were computed. Findings indicated rate change formulas were…

Training and education of infant and toddler caregivers is one important factor associated with the quality of child care they provide. In response to research showing that high-quality care supports positive development in young children, policymakers have established training and education requirements for licensed providers and launched…

An intensive early intervention program was evaluated by assessing gains made by 44 special needs children (age 2) in cognition, gross motor, fine motor, receptive language, and expressive language domains. Comparison of actual to predicted posttest scores did not reveal significant gains in any domains. In cognition, gross motor, and fine motor…

Cost-benefit studies of the Early Intervention Research Institute at Utah State University are summarized. No differences were found in educational effectiveness between half- and full-day programs, with the costs of half-day programs being about 75-85% of full-day programs. No significant differences were found between groups served by…