Early intervention with retarded children: some encouraging results

The changes in IQ for 35 preschool retarded children evaluated and then treated in a special hospital-based program which emphasized parent participation were compared with those of 36 retarded children evaluated at the same hospital clinic, most of whom received preschool services in the community. Over an average of 16 months, the group in the hospital-based program showed a mean gain of 8.1 IQ points, and 11 children increased by 15 points or more. In contrast, the mean improvement for the community group was 0.8 IQ points, and only two children had increases of 15 points or more. With the exception of serious neglect/deprivation, there was no relationship between medical diagnosis and amount of IQ change. Children from backgrounds of poverty, with unknown and presumably non-biological etiologies, did no better than children in better social circumstances with clear organic causes. Outcome was unaffected by sex, initial IQ level, initial age or social class.