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Program evaluation findings of an intensive early intervention program
1Debbie Institute, University of Miami School of Medicine, FL 33101, USA.
American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR
|November 1, 1996
Summary
This study evaluated an early intervention program for children with special needs. While the total group showed no significant gains, children with milder impairments demonstrated progress in cognitive and motor skills.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Special Education
- Early Childhood Intervention
Background:
- Early intervention programs aim to support children with special needs.
- Evaluating program effectiveness is crucial for optimizing developmental outcomes.
- Understanding differential effects based on impairment severity is important.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate an intensive early intervention program for children with special needs.
- To determine child gains in cognitive, motor, and language domains.
- To compare outcomes between subgroups with varying initial delays.
Main Methods:
- Assessed 44 children with special needs in multiple developmental domains.
- Compared actual posttest scores to predicted scores for the total group.
- Analyzed gains for subgroups based on pretesting delay severity.
Main Results:
- No statistically significant gains were found for the total group across all domains.
- Children with less severe impairments showed more progress in cognition, gross-motor, and fine-motor domains.
- Subgroup analysis revealed differential progress based on initial impairment severity.
Conclusions:
- The study highlights the need to consider measurement tool limitations in program evaluation.
- Findings suggest that early intervention may be more effective for children with less severe impairments.
- Policy implications include refining evaluation methods and tailoring interventions.