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…

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…

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…