美国残疾婴儿和学步儿早期干预计划

美国"残疾婴儿和学步儿早期干预计划"旨在为3岁以下残疾婴幼儿提供早期干预服务,以满足3岁以下残疾婴幼儿及其家庭的特殊需要."残疾婴儿和学步儿早期干预计划"的重要特点是免费性、普及性和全纳性.已有研究表明,美国"残疾婴儿和学步儿早期干预计划"的效果是积极的.我国可以借鉴美国的做法,逐步采取残疾婴幼儿早期干预措施,尽可能为残疾婴幼儿的发展提供帮助.     

A Study of Infant Developmental Outcome with a Sample of Korean Working Mothers of Infants in Poverty: Implications for Early Intervention Program

Using a sample of 42 Korean mothers whose infants are cared for by someone at non-maternal child care facilities, this study first examined both main effects and interaction effects between maternal knowledge of infant development and maternal self-efficacy on parenting behavior. Second, the combined effects of variables of interest in this study including maternal knowledge of infant development, maternal self-efficacy, and parenting behavior on the child developmental outcome were investigated. Significant relationships between maternal knowledge of infant development and parenting behavior and child development outcome were detected. Only main effects of maternal knowledge of infant development were detected. Furthermore, maternal knowledge of infant development was the only significant predictor of infant developmental outcome. Research implications were discussed both on the continuum of findings from previous studies with Western samples and in terms of provision of effective early intervention programs for this targeted population.     

Enhancing the Development of Low-Birthweight, Premature Infants: Changes in Cognition and Behavior over the First Three Years

The Infant Health and Development Program is a randomized clinical trial to test the efficacy of educational and family support services and pediatric follow-up offered in the first 3 years of life on reducing the incidence of developmental delay in low-birthweight (LBW), preterm infants in 8 clinical sites ( N = 985). Effects of the intervention on cognitive and behavior problem scores over the 3 years are examined. Significant intervention effects were seen on cognitive scores at 24 and 36 but not 12 months of age; effect sizes were similar at both ages. These effects persist when controlling for earlier cognitive scores. At 24 and 36 months, behavior problem scores for the intervention group were significantly lower than for the follow-up group; the intervention was more efficacious for children with higher initial behavior problem scores. Results are discussed in terms of timing and targeting of services for LBW and disadvantaged children.     

Outcome Assessment of Mentorship Program

This paper reports results of a survey that studied the outcomes of a mentorship program. Students enrolled in a core course for the MA and certificate in gerontology programs were required to select either a long-term care service, a program in aging, or an agency providing services for senior adults, where they could spend a day interacting with a mentor. A wide range of sites were available and students could select one site for 8 hours or two sites for 4 hours each. The researchers were interested in assessing both the opinions of the students who participated and of the mentors themselves about this educational experience. A survey that had a series of open-ended and close-ended questions was administered to all graduate students who participated as well as to the mentors at their various sites. This paper discusses the implications of this program as a model for other gerontology programs. It delineates mentor and student suggestions about the strengths and weaknesses of the current set-up of the mentorship program. Suggestions are made for further study of this pedagogical tool.     

Assessment for Effective Intervention: Enrichment Science Academic Program

Israel suffers from a growing problem of socio-economic gaps between those who live in the center of the country and residents of outlying areas. As a result, there is a low level of accessibility to higher education among the peripheral population. The goal of the Sidney Warren Science Education Center for Youth at Tel-Hai College is to strengthen the potential of middle and high school students and encourage them to pursue higher education, with an emphasis on majoring in science and technology. This study investigated the implementation and evaluation of the enrichment science academic program, as an example of informal learning environment, with an emphasis on physics studies. About 500 students conducted feedback survey after participating in science activities in four domains: biology, chemistry, physics, and computer science. Results indicated high level of satisfaction among the students. No differences were found with respect to gender excluding in physics with a positive attitudes advantage among boys. In order to get a deeper understanding of this finding, about 70 additional students conducted special questionnaires, both 1 week before the physics enrichment day and at the end of that day. Questionnaires were intended to assess both their attitudes toward physics and their knowledge and conceptions of the physical concept “pressure.” We found that the activity moderately improved boys’ attitudes toward physics, but that girls displayed decreased interest in and lower self-efficacy toward physics. Research results were used to the improvement of the instructional design of the physics activity demonstrating internal evaluation process for effective intervention.     

Measuring the Quality of Early Intervention Services for Infants and Toddlers: Problems and prospects

Comparable scales to measure quality of early intervention services for infants and toddlers as perceived by parents and service providers were developed based on the Recommended Practices in Early Intervention. Each scale consisted of four subscales focusing on: home-based therapies/instruction, centre-based therapies/instruction, medical/ health services, and service coordination. The scales were administered to 209 parents and 177 of their service providers. A sample of 24 parents completed the instrument twice during a two-week interval to assess test-retest reliability of the parent scale. Test-retest reliability for the parent scale was .785. Validity of the scale was assessed by examining the correlation of parent and provider perceptions of quality with family demographic and early intervention service characteristics. Parents' perceptions of quality were related to family centredness of services. Neither parents' nor providers' perceptions of quality were related to family socioeconomic status. Problems and prospects for measuring quality of early intervention services are discussed.     

Effects of a School for Pregnant Students on the Incidence of Low-Birthweight Deliveries

To evaluate effects of an alternative public school for pregnant teenagers in New Haven, CT, medical and school records were reviewed for a 1-year birth cohort of 230 adolescent mothers. Nearly three-quarters of all school-aged primiparas who were enrolled in the city's public schools when they became pregnant attended the alternative school. Because of summer vacation, however, students who conceived in January through April began attending later in pregnancy than did those who conceived in May through December; these mothers were significantly more likely to deliver a preterm, low-birthweight infant. No such seasonal effects were found for other teenagers in the city who were not enrolled in public school at conception. Positive birth outcomes for early program attenders are similar to those reported for a nurse-home-visitation program. The results suggest that school programs have considerable potential to be an effective service delivery model for providing prenatal intervention to adolescents.     

Early Intervention with Medically Fragile Infants: Investigating the Age-at-Start Question

Very few studies have investigated the age at which early intervention should begin. Similarly few studies have examined the effects of early intervention for infants who are medically fragile. The present study responds to these two critical issues by longitudinally comparing groups of infants who are medically fragile. These infants were randomly assigned to receive developmentally appropriate programs beginning at either 3- or 18-months adjusted age. Analysis of measures of child development and family functioning for the first three annual assessments indicated that the two groups were similar on measures of child functioning at the first and second assessment. However, at the third assessment, children who received the intervention at an earlier age scored significantly higher than did children whose intervention began 15 months later. No significant group differences were found on measures of family functioning at any of the assessments. Implications of these results for future research and practice are discussed.     

Early Intervention with Medically Fragile Infants: Investigating the Age-at-Start Question

Very few studies have investigated the age at which early intervention should begin. Similarly few studies have examined the effects of early intervention for infants who are medically fragile. The present study responds to these two critical issues by longitudinally comparing groups of infants who are medically fragile. These infants were randomly assigned to receive developmentally appropriate programs beginning at either 3- or 18-months adjusted age. Analysis of measures of child development and family functioning for the first three annual assessments indicated that the two groups were similar on measures of child functioning at the first and second assessment. However, at the third assessment, children who received the intervention at an earlier age scored significantly higher than did children whose intervention began 15 months later. No significant group differences were found on measures of family functioning at any of the assessments. Implications of these results for future research and practice are discussed.     

Evaluation of a Community-Based Aging Intervention Program

This study evaluated the outcome and process of a community-based aging intervention program for the elderly in Taiwan. The program included education on nutrition and dietary behavior and on physical activities. Outcome and process evaluations were conducted. The program may have had some effects on decreasing some dietary behavioral problems and increasing regular exercise, but the effect on health outcome was not proved. The strength of this program was its proper design, dosage, and implementation; the weaknesses included a low participation rate, low commitment and continuity, and selection bias for the nonparticipants who might be frailer than the actual participants.     

How Perceptions of an Intervention Program Affect Outcomes

Goals for Health was a National Cancer Institute funded program designed to impact health behaviors of adolescents living in rural Virginia and New York. This study examined three specific objectives: (a) to examine participants' perceptions of the program components and the relationship between program components and overall program perception, (b) to examine whether subgroups of our participant population perceived the program differently, and (c) to examine whether having positive perceptions of the program predicted changes in program outcomes. Results indicated that program components were significantly related to program perceptions. Perceptions of the program did not differ by subgroup and program perceptions significantly predicted changes in tobacco attitudes and self-efficacy about eating behaviors. Given these findings, school consultants should become aware of how implementation of a program and perceptions of a program may impact program outcomes.     

Vagal Regulation of Heart Rate in the Prediction of Developmental Outcome for Very Low Birth Weight Preterm Infants

To Investigate heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as markers of developmental outcome, infant ECG and 3 year outcome were assessed in 41 very low birth weight (<1,500 g) infants. Measures of mean hart rate and RSA, and the maturational shifts in their values from 33 to 35 weeks gestational age, were recorded. RSA measures predicted 3 year outcome beyond the effects of birth weight, medical risk, and socio-economic status. Higher RSA was associated with better social skills, whereas greater RSA maturation was associated with better mental processing and gross motor skills. Lower heat rate was associated with better behavior regulation and social skills, whereas greater maturational decreases were associated with better gross motor skills. Dividing the sample into groups of infants with birth weight less than 1,000 g and these with birth weight over 1,000 g, RSE maturation emerged a strong predictor of mental processing, knowledge base and gross motor skills in the former. A measured of joint maturation of RSA and heart rate was associated with better behavior regulation at 3 years, as measured by Child Behavior Checklist and parenting Stress Index scores, for this group. The findings directly respond to the need for physiological variables in the prediction of outcome in high-risk infants.     

Mother‐Child Interactions and Early Intervention Programmes for Handicapped Infants and Young Children

Increased emphasis in the provision of early intervention programmes with families of biologically impaired or at‐risk infants, in recent years, has produced a wide variety of such services based upon various conceptual and empirical analyses of early development. The impact of these early interventions has been investigated quite extensively since the mid‐sixties, particularly regarding positive effects upon intellectual development. A synthesis of recent research regarding mother‐child interaction patterns and the influence of these social interactions upon cognitive, linguistic, and social development has resulted in a shifting emphasis in early interventions from the parent‐as‐teacher model to a parent‐infant interaction model. In concert with this shifting emphasis, interactional models of intervention are considered and described which provide the basis for identifying specific intervention strategies related to parent‐child interaction dynamics. These strategies provide the basis for programmes which would be sensitive to the idiosyncracies of individual families. That is, the unique characteristics of each family/infant may be more effectively accommodated through a transactional analysis of individual dyadic interaction patterns, and through the identification of strategies specifically suited to the unique needs of the parent‐child dyad.

     

Developmental Outcome of Minority Infants: A Process-oriented Look into Our Beginnings

This article reviews the literature on the development of children of minority status from birth to 3 years of age (infants). 5 major sources of influence on the developmental outcome of minority infants are proposed: cultural beliefs and caregiving practices, health status and health care practices, family structure and characteristics, socioeconomic factors, and biological factors. It is suggested that differences exist between minority and Anglo families in their developmental goals and interactions during the infancy period. The health status of some minority groups places these infants in an at-risk category for neurodevelopmental problems. The family context is characterized by younger mothers, a higher percentage of single heads of households, but also large, extended families. Socioeconomic factors have a pervasive influence on both infants and parents, and the contribution of biological factors is suggested but poorly understood. It is concluded that these factors act synergistically to place these infants in alternative (not necessarily deviant) developmental pathways, or in "at-risk" categories for neurodevelopmental problems, while canalization processes are operating to insure that major developmental milestones are achieved.     

An Activity-Based Language Intervention Program for Kindergarten Children: A Retrospective Evaluation

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of a small-group intervention based on the naturalistic approach on 220 children from 3–5 years of age. All kindergarten children received weekly sessions delivered by a SLP in collaboration with the kindergarten teacher. These sessions included various book related activities. Two intervention groups were identified: children from middle SES neighborhoods and children from low SES neighborhoods. A control group was matched to the first group and included children from middle SES neighborhoods. Children participating in the program were pre and post tested using three language tests in order to assess basic language skills. The main finding was that children in the intervention groups showed significantly greater gains from pre- to post-test relative to children in the comparison group. The program benefited children from different SES environments. The greatest progress was in the area of vocabulary. In sum, the combination of small group setting and age-appropriate interactive activities served to provide language promoting opportunities for these children.     

An Evaluation of Early Intervention Effectiveness at Increasing Age Levels for Program Initiation

Previous research has identified a negative correlation between developmental outcomes and length of early intervention programs. In the present investigation, these counterintuitive findings were examined on a sample of “at risk” children who had received a home-based infant development program and who had been enrolled at different age levels. Findings indicated that treatment length was negatively, but not significantly, correlated with developmental outcome. In addition, start age was found to be significantly negatively correlated with outcome, suggesting that certain developmental indices may decrease over time for certain populations. When the regression of time with start age was taken into account in the analyses, large and reliable treatment effects were observed at all start age levels. Results are discussed with respect to future research endeavors.     

An Evaluation of Early Intervention Effectiveness at Increasing Age Levels for Program Initiation

Previous research has identified a negative correlation between developmental outcomes and length of early intervention programs. In the present investigation, these counterintuitive findings were examined on a sample of "at risk" children who had received a home-based infant development program and who had been enrolled at different age levels. Findings indicated that treatment length was negatively, but not significantly, correlated with developmental outcome. In addition, start age was found to be significantly negatively correlated with outcome, suggesting that certain developmental indices may decrease over time for certain populations. When the regression of time with start age was taken into account in the analyses, large and reliable treatment effects were observed at all start age levels. Results are discussed with respect to future research endeavors.