EARLY INTERVENTION FOR DEVELOPMENTALLY DI STURBED-CHILDREN - AN EVALUATING REVIEW

Early intervention consists of a large variety of child- or family-cen tered measures such as medical treatment, educational training, and pr ovision of social and psychological support. Based on the literature, an evaluation of early intervention with regard to its efficacy is pro posed. Early intervention in environmentally at-risk children gives th e most convincing results. In children with physical disabilities ther e is little evidence for significant improvement by therapeutic-type i nterventions, whereas family-centered interventions like parent counse lling, social and psychological support are found to be effective. Cha nges in family functioning and parent-child-interaction are obviously acting on child's development and behaviour in a compensatory sense. T herefore, parent-centered interventions, necessarily well defined and standardized, play a major role in the concept of early intervention.