Early Intervention Programs (early + intervention_program)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


S16.3: The Impact of Social Inequality and Nationality on Developmental Retardation, Early Diagnosis and the Use of Early Intervention Programs for Pre-school Children

BIOMETRICAL JOURNAL, Issue S1 2004
Jodok Erb
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Are men shortchanged on health?

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PRACTICE, Issue 4 2010
Perspective on life expectancy, morbidity, mortality in men, women in the United States
Summary Background:, Significant gender disparities exist in life expectancy and major disease morbidity. There is an urgent need to understand the major issues related to men's health that contributes to these significant disparities. It is hypothesized that men have higher and earlier morbidities, in addition to behavioral factors that contribute to their lower life expectancy. Methods:, Data was collected from CDC: Health United States, 2007; American Heart Association, American Obesity Association, and American Cancer Society. Results:, Men have lower life expectancy than women in most countries around the world including United States. This gender disparity is consistent regardless of geography, race and ethnicity. More men die of 12 out of the 15 leading causes of death than women. In addition, men have higher morbidity and mortality in coronary heart disease (CHD), hypertension, diabetes, and cancer. Conclusions:, Men's lower life expectancy may be explained by biological and clinical factors such as the higher incidence of cardiovascular metabolic disease and cancer. In the context of public health, raising awareness of cardiovascular and metabolic health is needed to reduce the gender disparity. In addition, consideration of preventive and early detection/intervention programs may improve men's health. [source]


A Cost Utility Analysis of Interdisciplinary Early Intervention Versus Treatment as Usual For High-Risk Acute Low Back Pain Patients

PAIN PRACTICE, Issue 5 2010
Mark D. Rogerson PhD
Abstract Chronic pain is a costly and debilitating condition that has proven difficult to treat, solely with medical interventions, due to the complex interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors in its onset and persistence. Many studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of interdisciplinary treatment that includes psychosocial interventions for low back pain. Nevertheless, these interventions continue to be under-utilized due to concerns of cost and applicability. The present study utilized a cost utility analysis to evaluate effectiveness and associated costs of interdisciplinary early intervention for individuals with acute low back pain that was identified as high-risk for becoming chronic. Treatment effectiveness was evaluated using a standard pain measure and quality-adjusted life years, and associated medical and employment costs were gathered for 1 year. Results indicated that subjects improved significantly from pretreatment to 1-year follow-up, and that the early intervention group reported fewer health-care visits and missed workdays than the treatment as usual group. The majority of 1,000 bootstrapped samples demonstrated the dominance of the early intervention program as being both more effective and less costly from a societal perspective. The early intervention treatment was the preferred option in over 85% of samples within an established range of acceptable costs. These results are encouraging evidence for the cost-effectiveness of interdisciplinary intervention and the benefits of targeted early treatment. [source]


A preliminary investigation of an early intervention program: Examining the intervention effectiveness of the Bracken Concept Development Program and the Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised with Head Start students

PSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 3 2004
Patti Wilson
This research study evaluated the efficacy of the Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised (BBCS-R; Bracken, 1998) and the Bracken Concept Development Program (BCDP; Bracken, 1986a) in a test-teach-test paradigm with students from a Head Start program. Prior to the intervention, 54 children were administered the BBCS-R and were divided into three groups, two of which received basic concept instruction. Once the intervention was completed, the children were reassessed with the BBCS-R. Posttest scores were calculated for each BBCS-R subtest and the Total Test and School Readiness Composites after controlling for the pretest scores. A MANOVA and sequential ANOVAs were conducted and proved a significantly higher performance of the two intervention groups compared to the control group. Effect sizes for five of the six BBCS-R subtests were classified as large, with the sixth (Time/Sequence) classified as medium. Discriminant function coefficients found that the Texture/Material subtest contributed the most to the detection of differences between the groups. However, no significant difference between the two intervention groups was found. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 301,311, 2004. [source]


Training paraprofessionals to use behavioral strategies when educating learners with autism spectrum disorders across environments

BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS, Issue 1 2010
Laura J. Hall
Although the use of paraprofessionals in the education of young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a common practice, research on effective training procedures is scarce. The following study used a multiple-baseline design across settings replicated by five paraprofessionals to evaluate their use of behavioral strategies with young children with, or at risk for, autism spectrum disorder. A training package consisting of a workshop and performance feedback by their supervising special education teacher served as the intervention. Results revealed that even though the paraprofessionals demonstrated skills in the use of behavioral strategies at the workshop, there was either no transfer or generalization to the preschool or home environments where they worked, or their use of skills decreased over time. When performance feedback was provided to all participants, their correct use of strategies increased. The training model evaluated in this study provides an example of one that could be employed in a typical public school classroom or early intervention program. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Applying the Infant-Toddler Social & Emotional Assessment (ITSEA) and Brief-ITSEA in early intervention

INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 6 2007
Margaret J. Briggs-Gowan
To examine the internal consistency and validity of the Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (ITSEA) and Brief-ITSEA (BITSEA) parent-report questionnaires in an early intervention sample. A sociodemographically diverse sample of 192 parents of 11- to 36-month-old children referred to early intervention programs completed surveys containing the ITSEA, BITSEA, and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Parents were interviewed with the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. Evaluators blind to children's status on the ITSEA and BITSEA rated child behavior during developmental assessments. Finally, a subsample of 71 children was administered the Mullen Scales of Early Learning. Findings support the internal consistency of the ITSEA and BITSEA, with the majority of Cronbach's alphas above .70. Supporting validity, ITSEA and BITSEA problem scores correlated significantly with CBCL Internalizing and Externalizing scores (rs=.28 to .78), as well as with observational ratings of problem behaviors on constructs paralleling the ITSEA domains (rs=.21 to .45). In contrast, ITSEA Competence and BITSEA Competence demonstrated moderate negative associations with CBCL scores (rs=,.39 to ,.43). Finally, ITSEA Competence and BITSEA Competence correlated significantly with developmental level on the Mullen, Vineland Socialization, and observational ratings of competence (rs=.25 to .43). Emphasizing the importance of addressing social-emotional issues in early intervention settings, 58.6% of children had high social-emotional/behavioral problems and/or low competence on the ITSEA; 39.8% had high ITSEA Problems and 38.5% had low ITSEA Competence. Results indicate the need to assess social-emotional adjustment in early intervention settings and support the use of the ITSEA and BITSEA for this purpose. [source]


Irving B. Harris Distinguished Lecture: Reflective supervision in infant,family programs: Adding clinical process to nonclinical settings

INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 5 2004
Linda Gilkerson
Programs that are moving toward relationship-based practice are finding it essential to integrate some form of reflective process into their program practices in order to achieve their goals. Reflective supervision is proposed as a method to support change toward relationship-based practice with infants and their families. The elements and structure of reflective supervision are described and several examples are given showing the implementation of this approach in two different settings: neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and community-based early intervention programs. [source]


Biological, social, and community influences on third-grade reading levels of minority Head Start children: A multilevel approach

JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2003
Virginia A. Rauh
The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of individual and community level risks on school outcomes of children who attend Head Start. We studied a sample of 3,693 African American and Hispanic children who had been born in New York City, participated in Head Start, and attended New York City public schools. The outcome was the score obtained on a citywide third-grade reading test. Individual level risk factors were derived from birth certificate data. Community level risks were extracted from citywide U.S. Census data and other public-access data sets. Multilevel regression analyses indicated that at the individual level, lower reading scores were significantly associated with: male gender, low birth weight, unmarried mother, low maternal education, and inadequate interpregnancy spacing. Controlling for individual-level risk, concentrated community poverty significantly lowered reading scores, and a high percentage of immigrants in the community significantly raised scores. There was also a significant crosslevel effect: boys benefited more than girls from the immigrant community effect. The evidence suggests that we can better identify children at future educational risk and maximize the success of early intervention programs by exploring influences on school success at multiple levels, including the community. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 31: 255,278, 2003. [source]


Predictors of acute distress among young adults injured by community violence

JOURNAL OF TRAUMATIC STRESS, Issue 3 2003
Lisa H. Jaycox
Abstract Acute reactions to trauma are examined in 267 individuals severely injured via community violence. Respondents were interviewed about pretrauma, peritraumatic, and acute posttraumatic factors. A series of bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted. We found few factors related to peritraumatic dissociation (PD): only injury severity and neuroticism emerged as multivariate predictors and the effects were small. PD was strongly related to acute PTSD symptoms, and partially mediated the relationship between other factors and acute PTSD and general distress symptoms. Different patterns of predictors emerged for acute PTSD symptoms vis-à-vis general distress symptoms. Future research on predictors of PD is indicated to develop prevention and early intervention programs. [source]