Home intervention with parents of severely subnormal pre-school children: a final report

A 3-year intervention programme with parents of severely subnormal pre-school children is described. Two experimental groups, one visited individually at 2-week intervals and one similarly at 8-week intervals are compared with a third distal contrast group receiving no intervention. Analyses of successive IQ changes in all three groups after 2 years than that receiving more visits but that this difference disappeared after 3 years. The contrast non-intervention group made fewer gains overall than either of the two experimental groups. Four questions are discussed: the maintenance of early gains, the influence of social class, the optimal level of intervention and the meaning of successful intervention to parents. Evaluation of the project is concerned with experimental efficiency, methodology, and the problems of partnership.