Early Intervention with Mentally Handicapped Children: A Critical Appraisal of Applied Research

Research on the impact of early intervention with mentally handicappedchildren and their families has placed too much emphasis uponchild develop mental progress to the neglect of several importantparental and environmental variables upon which the child'sultimate development depends. Studies have also tended not toinclude process measures in their pro gram evaluation procedures.These two major issues and others related to the appropriatenessof traditional group research designs for the early interventionfield are examined through an analysis of 20 studies carriedout in five countries in the last 10 years.