Early Intervention Programs

Early Intervention Programs are structured initiatives designed to support the development of children with developmental delays or disabilities, typically from birth to age three. These programs focus on improving a child's physical, cognitive, communication, social, and emotional skills through tailored interventions. They involve a multidisciplinary approach, incorporating various professionals such as educators, therapists, and healthcare providers to create a supportive environment for the child and family.

The aim of Early Intervention Programs is to identify challenges early on and provide resources and strategies to enhance the child’s developmental outcomes. Services may include speech therapy, physical therapy, and family support, all designed to foster a child’s ability to learn and grow within their family and community settings. Importantly, these programs emphasize collaboration with parents and caregivers, recognizing their role as key partners in the intervention process.

Culturally sensitive practices are integral to these programs, as they strive to respect and incorporate the diverse backgrounds and values of families. By focusing on the unique needs of each child and their family, Early Intervention Programs work to provide equitable support and empower families to navigate the challenges associated with developmental delays. Overall, these programs represent a critical investment in the future of children with special needs, aiming to promote their independence and success in later life.

Published in: 2021

By: Froiland, John mark

Subject Terms

Early Intervention Programs

Abstract

Early intervention programs focus on helping children improve their social skills, self-regulation of emotions, academic skills, or behavior early in life. Numerous studies have shown that well-designed early interventions have larger effects and are more cost effective than most interventions provided in late childhood or adolescence. Furthermore, early intervention can help set students on a trajectory for greater long-term psychological health, academic success, and better life outcomes. Because parents play a crucial role in early childhood development, early intervention programs often focus on enhancing parent involvement and parenting skills.

Overview

Early intervention is an important topic because it has to do with helping at-risk young children thrive, rather than continuing on a path that may lead to low levels of achievement in school, low motivation to learn, dropping out of high school, behavioral problems, reduced hope, single parenthood at an early age, higher divorce rates, and possibly incarceration (Froiland, 2014; Froiland, Powell, Diamond & Son, 2013). For instance, the U.S. government has invested tremendous amounts of money and resources in providing Head Start preschool to children from families that are below the poverty line or experience other significant risks during early childhood.

Children from families of low socioeconomic status often experience a variety of disadvantages, such as fewer children's books at home (Froiland et al., 2013), parents reading to them less frequently from birth to age six (Froiland, Powell, & Diamond, 2014), neighborhoods that are more dangerous (Froiland, 2011a), fewer neighbors with a college education (Froiland et al., 2013), and weaker neighborhood social networks (Froiland et al., 2014). Positive or negative neighborhood effects on young children are often mediated by the parents, such that parents benefit from having healthy social networks in their neighborhood, which may lead to sharing ideas about child development and sharing an appreciation for literacy (Froiland et al., 2013).

When parents are in safe, supportive, and/or well-resourced neighborhoods, they often read more to young children, encourage greater participation in school, and help them to develop stronger achievement (Froiland et al., 2013). Early interventions have had a great deal of success in helping parents enhance the home literacy environment to increase vocabulary and reading achievement (Jeynes, 2012), which helps young children to get on a trajectory toward completing high school, college graduation, and greater well-being.

Interventionists have had less success so far in elevating achievement via enhancing neighborhood environments (Sanbonmatsu, Kling, Duncan & Brooks-Gunn, 2006). This could be because most neighborhood interventions have involved transplanting children from inner-city to suburban neighborhoods, rather than strategically strengthening social networks, safety, parent-child communication, and home literacy throughout neighborhoods. However, early interventionists have found that parents of low socioeconomic status who are recent immigrants prefer to meet with parenting experts in their neighborhood among people they trust, rather than at a school or hospital (Powell, Zambrana, & Silva-Palacios, 1990). Knowing this can lead to higher levels of parent engagement and attendance in early parent involvement interventions.

When conducting early childhood interventions, there are a few important things to consider in addition to the crucial role of parenting in promoting achievement and psychosocial well-being. First, not all early intervention programs work. It is important to read the scientific literature in education, psychology, and child development journals carefully to see whether well-conducted studies demonstrate that the intervention being considered has established a statistically significant effect for those receiving the treatment in comparison with those in a control group (a group of parents/teachers and children in which no treatment is received).

In one study, preschool children whose teachers received rigorous training in high quality vocabulary instruction improved early reading skills significantly more than children whose teachers were on a wait-list to receive the training (Powell, Diamond, Burchinal & Koehler, 2010). This study also found that teachers who received remote training using strategically selected videos and coaching via electronic communication had students that improved about as much as teachers who had live coaches, suggesting that there are effective and efficient ways to train preschool teachers to enhance the classroom environment. Banerjee and Luckner (2013) found that early childhood teachers also need help in utilizing sound assessment to make effective instructional decisions. This suggests that even when an evidence-based intervention program is used, early childhood interventionists may need help in analyzing all of the data that is generated before, during, and after an intervention is implemented, in order to refine the implementation of the intervention or combination of interventions.

Further Insights

Parent Involvement. Numerous studies indicate that a variety of evidence-based programs to promote parent involvement during early childhood are effective in increasing achievement (Jeynes, 2012). Programs that focus on developing a rich home literacy environment among young children are often the most effective. A rich home literacy environment usually involves plenty of high quality children's books that are appropriately challenging for children, parents reading with their young children (and infants) almost every day, parents starting to read with children from birth (or a very young age), and taking children to the public library (Froiland et al., 2014). Taking children to museums, zoos, faith-based activities, and aquariums also promotes early childhood development (Powell, Son, File & Froiland, 2012).

However, parent expectations and autonomy-supportive parental communication often have larger effects on achievement than other types of parent involvement in longitudinal studies (Jeynes, 2012). For instance, in a study that followed children from kindergarten to eighth grade, parent expectations that their kindergarten children would eventually graduate college, receive a master's degree, or become doctors had twice the positive effect of the home literacy environment achievement development in math, science, and reading (Froiland, Peterson & Davison, 2013). Positive expectations have also been linked to a reduced likelihood of retention (being held back a grade because of behavioral or academic struggles), better behavior, and higher grades (Froiland & Davison, 2014).

Viewpoints

Unfortunately, there is a lack of early intervention research that seeks to elevate parent expectations and enhance parental autonomy-supportive communication. The latter is especially problematic because intervention research with elementary school and middle school students indicates that parental autonomy support elevates children's motivation to learn and happiness, while decreasing anxiety and depression symptoms (Froiland, 2011b; Froiland, 2013; Joussemet, Mageau & Koestner, 2014). Therefore, future early parent intervention studies would be wise to include strategies to elevate parental autonomy support and elevate parental expectations (Froiland, 2014). Further, improvement in this area may help with a big problem in early parenting interventions, which is attrition. Namely, even when parent involvement programs work well to improve parenting behaviors, such as reading more frequently with children, many parents drop out of the programs and therefore do not see increased achievement in their children (Mendez, 2010). Parenting interventions that implement positive psychology techniques, such as focusing on warm parent-child communication that helps children to see the purpose in learning have led to high levels of parent attendance of the training and extremely low dropout rates (Froiland, 2011b), suggesting that integrating positive psychology parenting interventions with already established early interventions could be quite fruitful.

Benefits of Early Intervention Policies. If the power of early interventions are to be fully harnessed on a wide scale, many nations will need to develop a mindset that sees the value in prevention, rather than relying on treating problems after they have developed into clinical level disorders. For instance, it is much easier to help a child with minor behavioral problems in preschool or elementary school through parent training and anger management therapy, than to wait until the child has developed full-blown conduct disorder (CD) in high school (Webster-Stratton & Taylor, 2001). Students with CD are at a high risk for dropping out of high school, committing highly violent acts toward others, drug abuse, and incarceration. If the right early intervention programs were applied, society could help the vast majority of children with early signs of behavior problems in preschool or elementary school. This could cost millions of dollars per school district or community, but ultimately save society billions of dollars related to court costs, the cost of incarcerating people for years, psychological and physical harm to others, and the destruction of property.

Terms & Concepts

Assessment: More in depth than merely providing tests, assessment involves interpreting complex and multifaceted data in order to gain insight that will promote an accurate and deep understanding of a person's situation or progress in response to interventions.

Attrition: Drop off in participation by people in a program or intervention.

Control group: A group of young children, parents, or teachers that received no treatment. The control group serves as a statistical comparison to the treatment or intervention group.

Evidence-based interventions: Interventions that have studies that show that they lead to a positive effect. Namely, an interventions' effect should be established by studies that show that the intervention group improved significantly more than the control group on important measures of achievement, psychological health, or behavior.

Prevention: Helping children develop positive psychological and educational characteristics, such as achievement, skills, happiness, motivation to learn, and a desire to help others before the child ever shows signs of a having a psychological disorder or low achievement.

Trajectory: A path, whether positive or negative, that one is likely to continue on without further intervention or extremely disruptive circumstances.

Socioeconomic status: A combination of education and financial income that may also include the prestige of parents' occupations. Parent education levels are usually measured on a continuum from less than a high school education, associates' degree, college degrees, master's degree, and doctorate.

Poverty line: A threshold of household income per number of children, below which is considered insufficient for meeting needs for food, clothing, healthcare, and home-based educational resources.

Bibliography

Banerjee, R., & Luckner, J. L. (2013). Assessment practices and training needs of early childhood professionals. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 34(3), 231–248. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=89978687&site=ehost-live

Clarke, B. L., Sheridan, S. M., & Woods, K. E. (2014). Conjoint behavioral consultation: Implementing a tiered home-school partnership model to promote school readiness. Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community, 42(4), 300–314. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=98920691&site=ehost-live

Dan, A. (2016). The results of an early intervention program for children with ADHD. International Journal of Early Childhood Learning, 23(3), 11–20. Retrieved December 14, 2016 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=119120575&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2008). Self-determination theory: A macrotheory of human motivation, development, and health. Canadian Psychology, 49, 182–185. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=33773221&site=ehost-live

Froiland, J. M. (2011a). Examining the effects of location, neighborhood social organization and home literacy on early cognitive skills in the United States. International Journal of Psychology: A Biopsychosocial Approach /Tarptautinis Psichilogijos Žurnalas: Biopsichosocialinis Požiūris, 929–42. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=71848091&site=ehost-live

Froiland, J. M. (2011b). Parental autonomy support and student learning goals: A preliminary examination of an intrinsic motivation intervention. Child & Youth Care Forum, 40(2), 135–149. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=59459974&site=ehost-live

Froiland, J. M. (2013). Parents' weekly descriptions of autonomy supportive communication: Promoting children's motivation to learn and positive emotions. Journal of Child and Family Studies. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=100274730&site=ehost-live

Froiland, J. M. (2014). Inspired childhood: Parents raising motivated, happy, and successful students from preschool to college [Kindle]. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LT4OX5O

Froiland, J. M., & Davison, M. L. (2014). Parental expectations and school relationships as contributors to adolescents' positive outcomes. Social Psychology of Education, 17(1), 1–17. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebsco-host.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=94912440&site=ehost-live

Froiland, J. M., Peterson, A., & Davison, M. L. (2013). The long-term effects of early parent involvement and parent expectation in the USA. School Psychology International, 34(1), 33–50. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=85042227&site=ehost-live

Froiland, J. M., Powell, D. R., & Diamond, K. E. (2014). Relations among neighborhood social networks, home literacy environments, and children's expressive vocabulary in suburban at-risk families. School Psychology International, 35(4), 429–444. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=97080425&site=ehost-live

Froiland, J. M., Powell, D. R., Diamond, K. E., & Son, S. C. (2013). Neighborhood socioeconomic well-being, home literacy, and early literacy skills of at-risk preschoolers. Psychology in the Schools, 50(8), 755–769. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=89658470&site=ehost-live

Jeynes, W. (2012). A meta-analysis of the efficacy of different types of parental involvement programs for urban students. Urban Education, 47(4), 706–742. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=76918877&site=ehost-live

Joussemet, M., Mageau, G., & Koestner, R. (2014). Promoting optimal parenting and children's mental health: A preliminary evaluation of the how-to parenting program. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 23(6), 949–964. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=96927009&site=ehost-live

Mendez, J. L. (2010). How can parents get involved in preschool? Barriers and engagement in education by ethnic minority parents of children attending Head Start. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 16(1), 26–36. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebsco-host.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=48128147&site=ehost-live

Powell, D. R., Diamond, K. E., Burchinal, M. R., & Koehler, M. J. (2010). Effects of an early literacy professional development intervention on Head Start teachers and children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(2), 299. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=60629083&site=ehost-live

Powell, D. R., Son, S., File, N., & Froiland, J. M. (2012). Changes in parental involvement across the transition from public school prekindergarten to first grade and children's academic outcomes. The Elementary School Journal, 113(2), 276–300. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=84534211&site=ehost-live

Powell, D. R., Zambrana, R., & Silva-Palacios, V. (1990). Designing culturally responsive parent programs: A comparison of low-income Mexican and Mexican-American mothers' preferences. Family Relations, 39(3), 298–304. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=9103041536&site=ehost-live

Sanbonmatsu, L., Kling, J. R., Duncan, G. J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2006). Neighborhoods and academic achievement: Results from the Moving to Opportunity experiment. The Journal of Human Resources, 41, 649–691. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=76471456&site=ehost-live

Webster-Stratton, C., & Taylor, T. (2001). Nipping early risk factors in the bud: Preventing substance abuse, delinquency, and violence in adolescence through interventions targeted at young children (0-8 years). Prevention Science, 2(3), 165–192. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=20057581&site=ehost-live

Early Intervention Programs

On this Page

Subject Terms

Early Intervention Programs

Abstract

Overview

Further Insights

Viewpoints

Terms & Concepts

Bibliography

Suggested Reading