Effectiveness of an Early Intervention Program as Indexed by Measures of Child Change

Abstract

The Preschool Program at the Center on Human Development provided enrolled children a daily program of cohesive, structured activities that were conducted in integrated classroom settings that included nonhandicapped children. Necessary support services, such as physical therapy and language therapy, were provided. An active program of parental involvement was conducted to meet the diverse needs of families. Child progress data collected over 2 years were analyzed. Two standardized instruments and two programmatically oriented instruments were employed to measure the programmatic impact on the enrolled children. These measures were administered in fall and again in the spring for two consecutive years. The children included in the analyses ranged in age from 6 months to 5 years and spanned the developmental continuum from normal to severely impaired. In general, analysis of the pre- and posttest group performance data indicated reliable differences on all tests. Analysis on subgroups of normal, at-risk, mild, moderate, and severely handicapped were conducted and indicated that significant gains were often made by subgroups as well. These results, in conjunction with other findings, suggest that the project goals were met.