Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) as an area of clinical and educational practice involves a myriad of decisions related to the symbols, devices, and strategies from which each client must choose. These decision-making points can be productively informed through evidence from comparative intervention studies. The purpose of this…

The purpose of this paper is to identify some variations among experimental programs and discuss the manner in which such variations seem to affect a program's success. To accomplish this purpose an in-depth analysis of a few major preschool intervention studies is made in terms of four pertinent variables: (1) Curriculum Model (2) Home…

Project Head Start and Project Follow Through are jointly exploring the effectiveness of 12 different educational approaches, or models, for the education of young children from poverty families. Investigations include study of (1) the effect of a continuous intervention program which begins with Head Start and extends through third grade, (2) the…

In a study of ways of preventing mental retardation in the population of a city slum, surveys were conducted. The major finding was that the variable of maternal intelligence was the best single predictor of the level and character of intellectual development in the offspring. The survey also showed that the lower the maternal IQ, the greater the…

This research project evaluated and compared three educational programs of high, medium, and low structure in family day care settings for a period of 10 months, to determine their impact on cognitive and social development in 60 children aged 2 1/2 to 4 years. The high-structure program followed the Bereiter-Engelmann approach, the…