Documented efforts to enhance the development
of children, especially to remediate the consequences of deprivation, have
taken place since the early nineteenth century, when researchers learned that
certain types of early experience were essential for the emergence of high
intellectual functioning. More recently, studies of children in orphanages in
the 1950s and 1960s initiated the investigation of what young children need to
ensure healthy growth and development.
This paper traces subsequent attempts to identify factors contributing to
impaired development and measures to ameliorate them in several early
intervention programs. The analysis of data gained from these programs indicate
that the rates of mild mental retardation associated with extreme poverty can
be substantially reduced by intensive programs of significant duration and that
additional social benefits will accrue as a result. Research following the
orphanage studies took three tracks. One track conducted behavioral experiments
on animals and demonstrated that deprivation can produce mental retardation and
aberrant social and emotional behavior in animals. A second line of research sought
to understand variation in young children’s responses to non-optimal settings
and the extent to which improvements in the environment could reverse or
minimize negative effects of deprivation. Factors hypothesized to contribute to
the variation included biological, genetic, gender, timing and duration of
deprivation, the life history of the child prior to deprivation, and the
child’s own behavioral repertoire, which may serve to elicit different
caregiving and social interactions. The third track of research showed that (a)
the rates of mild mental retardation were markedly elevated among very poor
families, (b) the quality of a child’s home environment - including the
responsivity and sensitivity of the mother to her child, the amount and level
of language stimulation, direct teaching,
and parenting styles - correlated with the child’s intellectual and problem
solving abilities, and (c) that very young infants could learn, that they could
learn in many different ways, and
that early learning experiences
directly affected infants’ responses to subsequent learning opportunities. As a
result of these research findings, enrichment programs were initiated to
prevent developmental and mental retardation among extremely poor families. The
first attempts at enrichment took place in highly-controlled, university-based
preschool centers; these compensatory programs differed considerably in
duration, timing, and intensity. They provided interesting toys, books, music,
and games; responsive
educated caregivers; a safe
environment, nutritious meals, regular rest and vigorous activity; and
congnitively rich environment where language and thinking skills were encouraged. The substantive content of what
was offered was sound and often proved successful.
We analyzed the efficacy of eleven early
intervention programs for children “at risk” and supplied the authoritative
study of early intervention programs. The consortium derived two major
conclusions: (a) reaffirmation that the programs did produce significant gains
in intellectual and conginitive
performance of participating children, and (b) the magnitude of gains, as
indexed by IQ, scores peeked at the end of intervention and for three or four
years thereafter, then declined over time, the often-noted “fade out effect.”
Because of the attention generated by the IQ decline, the longitudinal study’s
positive conclusions about long-lasting effects of early
childhood education programs for
children from low-income families - school competence, developed abilities,
attitudes and values, and impact on the family - were largely ignored.
Continued longitudinal inquiry and new intervention studies have provided
additional data for better understanding the development in children who
receive different types and amounts of early intervention. Five studies focused
on groups of children at high risk for mental retardation. All of these
intensive, multi-pronged programs involved random assignment of children to
intervention or control groups; and in each program, intervention continued for
a minimum of one year prior to age 4.
The five major programs all demonstrated
significant and clinically meaningful IQ increases and corresponding decreased
rates of mental retardation. For four of the programs, multiple benefits
persisted until middle school or later, although IQ differences between groups
declined or disappeared. In contrast to the decline in differences in IQ, more
substantial benefits appeared in terms of everyday performance indicators:
decreased rates of grade retention special education placement, improved school
achievement. The study showed benefits continuing into adulthood, including
economic self-sufficiency, educational
attainment, decreased criminal activity. The one study that did not show
long-term benefits selected children on the presumed biologic risk factors of
premature and low-weight birth and concluded intervention by 34 months of age.
All other programs continued until children entered school or beyond and
selected children according to demographic risk characteristics (especially
maternal characteristics), or according to significant developmental delays
apparent by age 4.
In a social ecological model of development
refined over the past two decades, the authors posit that a child’s competence
is determined by a multitude of forces, including intergenerational factors,
biological factors, parental competencies, and community social and cultural norms and practices. In this model, the
important influences on intellectual competency are the direct transactions a
child has with the immediate environment. Thus early intervention programs that
provide more intensive educational services, that start earlier and last longer, and that target
the child’s everyday experiences are hypothesized to be the most beneficial.
This hypothesis finds support in a recent analysis which agree on the causal
mechanisms of development. However, children in these programs still performed
below national norms and still needed additional support. Children from high
risk families clearly benefited from compensatory experiences, although these
did not entirely eliminate all risks as children continued to live with their
natural families and attended public schools in their locale.
Analyses confirm a strong association between
low levels of maternal education
and/or low maternal IQ and the magnitude of benefits in children. The home
environment exerted a powerful influence on the development of children among
children at greatest risk, those with very low IQ mothers. Premature children
with heavier low birth weight from families with the greatest social and
economic risks benefited most from early intervention.
To date, none of the large scale authorized
programs for children living in poverty have produced the same types of
benefits that smaller scale studies have. Several factors may account for this
apparent reduction of benefits. The smaller scale programs provided far more
intensive educational supports to a
greater proportion of enrolled children than large scale programs. Also,
enrollment in federal programs is based on poverty income, and children in the
programs are not at the high levels of risk for developmental or mental
retardation or for special education placement as were the children in the
small scale programs. However, the number of children at high risk of mild
mental retardation associated with sociodemographic factors, the most prevalent
form, can be reduced by 49% or more with high quality, intensive, multi-year,
multi-pronged, targeted intervention. The cost benefits of such preventative
programs would show up in reduced numbers of students entering special
education, reduced grade retention, reduced remedial summer programs, reduced
criminality, and reduce welfare enrollment. Given the increasing evidence that brain development is affected by early
and cumulative life experiences and the positive results of the early
intervention for high risk children, there is ample support to justify systematic
prevention efforts. Without this, children from very low income families are
likely to continue to fulfill their intergenerational prognosis of sub-average
intellectual performance and marginal social and economic existence. Challenges
to early childhood developmental
programs include a lack of
advocacy and the jeopardizing of existing home-visiting programs, but the two
greatest obstacles seem to be informing opinion leaders and policy makers about
the benefits and the general resistance to developing a new large scale program
in the light of many that have had disappointing results. The situation calls
for a comprehensive analysis of such large scale programs so that current
investments may be redirected. With such an analysis in hand, scientific facts
and political realities may be effectively integrated.
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