This community effectiveness trial examined the feasibility and efficacy of a comprehensive psychosocial treatment for 28 children, aged 7 to 10 years with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASDs). Treatment included instruction and therapeutic activities targeting social skills, face-emotion recognition skills, interest expansion, and…

There is a relative paucity of evidence examining the effectiveness of early intervention for young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, in particular those delivered through educationally-based programmes. This study aimed to evaluate the real world effectiveness of a community-based autism-specific early learning and intervention programme in…

This paper uses data from the Head Start Impact Study (HSIS), a nationally representative multisite randomized trial, to quantify variation in effects of Head Start during 2002-2003 on children's cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes relative to the effects of other local alternatives, including parent care. We find that (1) treatment and control…

This study used a pre-experimental and post-experimental design to evaluate a TEACCH-based Early Intervention Programme. Thirty-one parents of 18 preschool children recently diagnosed with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder attended the eight-week programme delivered by trained facilitators. Parents completed pre-intervention and post-intervention…

We evaluated the effectiveness of a two-generation preschool programme (centre-based early childhood education, parenting education and family support) on receptive language skills in children living in culturally diverse families with low income. Using a with-in subject pre-test/post-test design, children (N = 112) showed a statistically…

The purpose of this study was to examine the short-term effects of a music education intervention on the receptive language skills of students in an at-risk early childhood program. The target population was nine students ages 3, 4, and 5 in an at-risk, inclusive classroom in a Chicago public school. The problem of language delay is indicated in…

An intensive early intervention program was evaluated by assessing gains made by 44 special needs children (age 2) in cognition, gross motor, fine motor, receptive language, and expressive language domains. Comparison of actual to predicted posttest scores did not reveal significant gains in any domains. In cognition, gross motor, and fine motor…