A Study on Effectiveness of Early Intervention Programs used for Children with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

The present study was designed to see the effectiveness of early intervention programs available for children with intellectual disabilities in Lahore. This research study was quantitative and used a cross-sectional survey design. The data were collected from 120 parents using purposive sampling technique. A self-constructed structured questionnaire was designed to measure the effectiveness of the available programs. Data was collected from the parents of children with intellectual disabilities from Amin Maktab, Rising Son and Autism Institute situated in the Lahore. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data and study findings revealed that majority of parents (41%) were using dietary intervention, followed by medical intervention (23%), behavioral therapy (19%) educational intervention (17%). Results showed that majority of parents (49%) started taking early intervention during the age of 3-4 years. One-way analysis of variance revealed that the intervention started earlier (0-2 years) showed significant improvement in intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviors of children with intellectual disabilities but no significant difference between parents’ preference for early intervention and the gender of children was found. The study highlights the need for future researches on a larger sample including other disabilities as well.