EFFECTS OF EARLY INTERVENTION ON INTELLECTUAL AND ACADEMIC-ACHIEVEMENT - A FOLLOW-UP-STUDY OF CHILDREN FROM LOW-INCOME FAMILIES

Follow-up data, obtained 4-7 years after intervention ended, are prese nted for the Carolina Abecedarian Project, an experimental study of ea rly childhood educational intervention for children from poverty famil ies. Subjects were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 intervention conditions : educational treatment from infancy through 3 years in public school (up to age 8); preschool treatment only (infancy to age 5); primary sc hool treatment only (age 5-8 years), or an untreated control group. Po sitive effects of preschool treatment on intellectual development and academic achievement were maintained through age 12. School-age treatm ent alone was less effective. Results generally supported an intensity hypothesis in that scores on cognitive and academic achievement measu res increased as duration of treatment increased.