What do you thinks is the effect of early intervention for children with intellectual disabilities?

Question

What do you thinks is the effect of early intervention for children with intellectual disabilities?

Answer 1

its a genetic thing not an environmental thing

Answer 2

I can only speak from personal experience but I think it makes a great deal of difference in their lives. My son is Autistic and he wasn't actually diagnosed until he was five. As soon as I found out, I worked diligently on simple things other parents take for granted like eye contact and it was amazing the breakthroughs he made. Other social and scholastic advances he's achieved since then. I often wonder how much more progress he would have made if I had had the advantage of knowing even two years earlier.

Answer 3

The earlier the better.  Early identification is imperative, and appropriate intervention is too.  As someone already said, it depends on the degree of disability and also the cause of the disability.  With certain congenital conditions, such as certain brain structures, no amount of intervention is going to alter the outcome.  Most mild and moderate intellectual disabilities can be somewhat overcome with proper and continuing intervention.

Answer 4

I think it depends on how severe those intellectual disabilities are and their causes.  This year I worked with a student who was smothered by his mother when co-sleeping at 10 months.  Because that child was brain-damaged, early intervention could help him recover some of what he'd lost due ot the injury.  I feel the same about children with cerebral palsy caused by birth trauma.  As for kids with chromosomal difficulties (Down, Apert, Angelman's syndrome, etc.) it's hard to know what level of skills they are going to have.  Some kids will be able to go quite far, and others will always need one-to-one assistance.  Since we can't tell who will be what at the beginning, the only choice we have is to provide services for all.  I've seen kids do amazing things parents were told were out of reach.  Was it due to the child having more skills than thought, or because of those early intervention services provided by well trained professionals.  I have to say I think it's probably a bit of both.  I've seen kids who didn't get help, and it's sad to think about what their lives might be like if they'd gotten early assistance while their brains were still growing and developing.

Answer 5

Research says: 1) Early is best

                            2) You gotta stay on them.

   kids with reading trouble who get help early tend to progress normally, but they still need extra observation.