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The learning-disabled juvenile delinquent: a case for early intervention of perceptually handicapped children.

The relationship between learning disabilities and juvenile delinquency is examined from an historical perspective as well as from the author's investigations. The majority of studies suggest that learning disabilities occur with significant frequency in delinquent populations. Perceptual disorders can be a significant cause of academic underachievement and poor social adaptation among youthful offenders. Preliminary results of an investigation of the learning-disabled delinquent confirm that the perceptually handicapped child is at high risk for developing these behavioral problems. As one of the first professionals who may be involved in the evaluation and treatment of the perceptually handicapped child, the occupational therapist is a key person in effecting early intervention. Early intervention is considered of prime importance as one preventive measure of juvenile delinquency.

Adolescent

Interdisciplinary early intervention program.

Developmental data were obtained on 40 children with Down's syndrome by an interdisciplinary team during an ongoing early intervention program. Interventive methods are described. Results are compared with available data on children with Down's syndrome who were not in early intervention programs. Comparisons of developmental progress are also made of children begun in the early intervention program before six months of age with those begun after six months of age. Conclusions from the study indicate that early intervention helps the child in earlier attainment of many developmental tasks and enhances functioning of the family unit.

Counseling

Early-stage trajectories of social-occupational functioning and long-term functional outcome prediction in early psychosis: A 12-year follow-up of the randomized controlled trial on extended early intervention.

BACKGROUND: Functional impairment in psychosis often persists despite symptomatic remission. There is a paucity of research examining early-course psychosocial functioning trajectories, and none has been conducted to examine relationship between the trajectories and prospective long-term functional outcomes in early psychosis sample. METHODS: We conducted 12-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial on extended early intervention for first-episode psychosis to identify early-course social-occupational functioning trajectories and their baseline predictors and associations with 12-year outcomes. Participants who completed Social and Occupational Functioning Scale (SOFAS) scores at three or more timepoints between baseline and 3-year follow-up were included in the study. Premorbid adjustment, illness characteristics, symptom severity, functioning, and treatment profiles were assessed. Latent growth mixture modeling was employed to derive early-course social-occupational functioning trajectories based on SOFAS scores over 3-year follow-up. RESULTS: A total of 148 participants were included in this study, with 106 patients having completed the 12-year follow-up. Our results identified four distinct trajectories, including persistently-good class, gradually-improved class, suboptimal-stable class, and persistently-poor class. Patients in persistently-poor class had more severe negative symptoms at baseline compared to patients in persistently-good class. Patients with persistently-poor trajectory had worse long-term outcomes than those with other classes in the majority of functional measures at 12-year follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of patients were classified in early-stage suboptimal or poor functional trajectories. Above one-fourth of the participants exhibited persistently-poor social-occupational functioning trajectory, which predicted worse functional outcomes at 12-year follow-up. These findings highlighted the importance of tracking functional changes during the initial years of illness.

Humans

Physicians' attitudes toward early intervention.

Fourteen pediatricians serving Boston neighborhood health centers and fourteen pediatric neurologists in the greater Boston area were interviewed in order to determine their attitudes toward early intervention for infants with developmental disorders. The two groups differed significantly over the potential of early treatment for promoting optimal motor, cognitive, and affective development in the disadvantaged infant. Both groups viewed prevention of musculoskeletal deformities as appropriate for physically handicapped children and supported early intervention for the parents. When referral for treatment was delayed or withheld, the prime reasons given were an expression of a maturationist viewpoint, a desire for a definitive diagnosis prior to initiating treatment, the assumption that an adequate family can function without professional involvement, and misinterpretation of professional roles.

Attitude of Health Personnel

Evaluation and accountability in a parent-implemented early intervention service.

Traditionally human-service programs have lacked systematic procedures of evaluation and accountability to the clients served. The Regional Intervention Program, a parent-implemented early intervention service, developed and instituted one system of program evaluation to demonstrate its efficiency and effectiveness. The system as developed incorporates an economic justification in terms of the costs and benefits to the funding source, evaluation of specifically defined organizational and clinet objectives, data-based assessments of child progress, and accountability to a consumer-based evaluation committee. Collectively, these four components provide a means of continuous and reliable feedback to the funding source and to the clients served.

Child, Preschool

A parent-implemented early intervention program for preschool children.

The Regional Intervention Program is a data-based, parent-implemented early intervention program providing comprehensive services to parents and their handicapped preschool children in a 26-county area of middle Tennessee. The program's service modules teach parents how to manage their child's behavior and how to teach their child essential prelanguage, language, and self-help skills. The preschool component develops the child's motor, language, and peer-interaction skills in order to prepare him for placement in a preschool in the community. A liaison module conducts follow-up on each family every six months. Several evaluation components ensure that the program is accountable to both the funding source and the families served.

Behavior Therapy

Hepatitis B virus infection in infants and toddlers in Nigeria: the need for early intervention.

One or more serologic markers of hepatitis B were detected in serum samples from 29 of 61 (48%) Nigerian children between ages 6 months and 2 years who were followed for three months. Eight (13%) had acute infections, nine (15%) had chronic infections, and 12 (20%) had transplacentally acquired maternal antibody. Of 17 with active hepatitis B, 13 had been infected prior to the first serum sample (76% of infections) and four were infected during the three months of this study (24% of infections). These data indicate that effective intervention at an early age would have prevented 24% of the HBV infections which occurred in these infants, and intervention soon after birth might have prevented all of the cases.

Age Factors

Non-health professionals and the school-age child: early intervention for behavioral problems.

A methodology is described to utilize dormitory parents in direct care activities for the early intervention of behavioral problems of the school-age child. Specific information gathering, assessment, treatment, referral and follow-up tasks were defined and incorporated into a problem-solving protocol which served to guide the dormitory parents through the defined problem-solving process, to promote early identification of students with a behavioral problem, and to expedite referral to a professional for students with more severe problems. The methodology was pilot-tested in a large American Indian boarding school and demonstrated the feasibility and efficacy of dormitory parents in a therapeutic role as one component of a team approach to the management of behavioral problems. The pilot study resulted in a significant reduction in the rates of alcohol abuse and school dropouts and deserves application in a variety of settings.

Adolescent

Brass intraocular foreign body: early intervention and combined surgical approach.

The rapid development of suppurative reaction in response to a copper-containing intraocular foreign body disposes the eye to a poor prognosis. An intraocular brass foreign body case involving cornea, iris, lens, vitreous and retina was satisfactorily managed by early foreign body removal and corneal transplantation followed by scleral buckling for retinal detachment. Early intervention is advocated as alternative management with expectation of improvement in the prognosis for recovery of useful visual function.

Child

Nager acrofacial dysostosis: early intervention and long-term planning.

Nager acrofacial dysostosis is an extremely rare syndrome combining craniofacial features similar to Treacher Collins mandibulofacial dysostosis with the additional features of thumb and radial bone hypoplasia. The clinical and prognostic aspects of two unrelated infants with Nager acrofacila dysostosis are presented. A vigorous early intervention program of habilitation is described with emphasis on the facilitation of speech and language development in children with multiple morphological and developmental problems.

Female

Assessing the intellectural consequences of early intervention with high-risk infants.

Infants at-risk for mental retardation were divided into a group that received early day-care intervention and a matched control group that did not. The purpose of the intervention was to prevent sociocultural retardation. Children were tested at 7 and 18 months on a simple two-choice visual-discrimination task and on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development to assess the impact of the intervention program on their development. Analyses revealed that the experimental group's performance was reliably superior to that of the control group on both measures and that experimental subjects scoring high on the Bayley Scales reached criterion on the discrimination task on fewer trials than low Bayley scorers. The relationship was particularly strong at 18 months.

Child Day Care Centers

The effect of early intervention and pre-school stimulus on the development of the Down's syndrome child.

This paper describes the effect on a group of D.S. children of early and continuous parental counselling together with intensive pre-school stimulation in which the parents were fully involved. The stimulated group is compared with a similar group who developed unaided in their own homes, and with a third group who were institutionalised before their second birthday. Developmental Clinics in East Kent providing the stimulus are described. The effects of social class, parental age and family pattern were noted. The tests used were the Griffiths' Developmental and Stanford-Binet Scales, and the school placement at five years was studied. The results show that the stimulated group score higher on the IQ and DQ tests and particularly on Personal Social and Speech Development. School placement acts as an unbiased measurement of progress, and suggests that they are more easily integrated into the normal community.

Child Development

National strategies for screening neural tube defects in Saudi Arabia: activating prevention and early intervention.

BACKGROUND: Neural tube defects (NTDs) are serious congenital anomalies affecting the brain and spinal cord. Despite widespread folic acid supplementation and food fortification programs, regions such as Saudi Arabia have not experienced a proportional decline in NTD prevalence. This narrative review evaluates the multifactorial contributors to NTDs, focusing on the effectiveness of current prevention and screening strategies both globally and within Saudi Arabia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A comparative methodology guided this review, drawing from studies published between 2000 and 2024 sourced from PubMed, Scopus, and the WHO library. Keywords included "neural tube defects," "folic acid supplementation," "screening programs," and "food fortification." While not a systematic review, PRISMA principles were loosely followed to ensure study relevance and rigor. RESULTS: Globally, countries like the United States, Canada, Chile, and Australia have implemented mandatory folic acid fortification and reported NTD reductions ranging from 19 to 78%. South Africa, for example, achieved a 66% decline in NTD-related deaths post-fortification. In Saudi Arabia, similar initiatives have been launched, including folic acid campaigns and food fortification. However, national-level data evaluating their impact remains sparse. Regional disparities in implementation, awareness, and access have limited the success of these measures. Although 80.1% of Saudi women reportedly understand the preventive role of folic acid, uptake and proper timing of supplementation remain inconsistent. Screening services, particularly in rural areas, are not uniformly accessible, reducing early detection rates. Unlike countries such as Australia and Chile, Saudi Arabia lacks a standardized system for tracking and evaluating NTD outcomes. CONCLUSION: This review concludes that while Saudi Arabia has adopted commendable preventive strategies, the absence of comprehensive data, policy enforcement, and public education limits their effectiveness. Strengthening national monitoring systems, ensuring equitable access to screening, and enforcing mandatory fortification policies modelled on successful international practices are critical. Adopting evidence-based policies supported by robust evaluation frameworks will be essential to reducing the burden of NTDs and improving maternal and child health outcomes in Saudi Arabia.

Humans

Early intervention for female sexual identity disturbance: self-monitoring of play behavior.

This study is the first experimental demonstration of sex-typed play behavior change in a young girl with sexual identity disturbance. The 8-year-old child was treated with a self-monitoring procedure combined with a behavioral prompting technique that was gradually faded out. Self-monitoring in the clinic resulted in a high, stable rate of appropriate sex-typed play, and this effect generalized to a different set of sex-typed toys over time. The treatment effects did not generalize to the home environment. The self-regulation intervention was subsequently adapted to the home setting, resulting in a replication of the treatment effects across settings. After the removal of the self-monitoring interventions, a high level of feminine sex-typed play persisted. Pretreatment, posttreatment, and follow-up psychological testing demonstrated a reversal of a pronounced cross-gender identity to a normal female sexual identity.

Aggression

An approach to the evaluation of early intervention projects with mothers of severely handicapped children: the attitude dimension.

This paper describes a research investigation currently being carried out into the changing attitudes of mothers of severely handicapped pre-school children. A summary is made of the most frequently cited emotional reactions following the birth of a handicapped child and this is followed by a detailed description of a Maternal Attitudes Battery designed to obtain quantitative measures of relevent maternal attitudes. This is presented within the framework of an evaluation model specifically chosen to investigate the effectiveness of the Honeylands Home Intervention Project.

Attitude

Sex role stereotypes: developmental aspects and early intervention.

A total of 122 children participated in 2 experiments that examined the utility of sumbolic modeling stimuli in modifying sex role stereotypes. Results disclosed that, while some aspects of sex role stereotypes are present at age 3, other aspects are acquired between the third and fourth year of life. Additionally, males were found to exhibit more stereotyped responses than females. As predicted, brief presentations of illustrated stories involving egalitarian sex role models reduced stereotypic thinking. Interaction effects revealed that an egalitarian literature presentation was more effective at age 5 than age 4 and more effective for females than males. Finally, egalitarian symbolic models in films p-oduced more enduring attitude change on several measures than similar models in picture books.

Age Factors