As the preschool and early years of schooling were becoming the focus of increasing attention, the Scottish Office Education and Industry Department commissioned a review of United Kingdom and international literature on the use of early intervention schemes for disadvantaged students. The resulting review presents evidence on the most appropriate time to intervene, the effectiveness of alternative strategies, and reported long-term benefits. The strong message from the research is that there are no single-measure answers. Early intervention schemes should be located within the wider framework of efforts over the last 2 decades to overcome educational disadvantage and improve school performance. Children's needs are no longer seen as separable from family needs. Research on early learning closely links cognitive development to social and emotional factors, and policy makers and practitioners will need to taking this into consideration as they put practical initiatives into place. (Contains 23 references.) (HTH)