Early Intervention Programs

Another well-known early intervention program is the High/Scope Perry Preschool Study conducted in Ypsilanti, Michigan, from 1962 to 1967. Few early intervention programs have tracked the outcomes of its participants as well as this study has. This program divided African-American children born into poverty and at-risk for failing in school into two groups. One group participated in a high quality early intervention program, one that had well-trained teachers and a curriculum focusing on developmentally appropriate activities; the other group received no early intervention services. The immediate results and the results over time have shown that the children receiving early intervention services were far more successful than the children who did not. At age twenty-seven, participants in the study who received early intervention services were found to have a higher level of income earned per month, a higher level of education completed, a lower arrest rate, and a higher home ownership rate than the children who did not receive early intervention services. Over the lifetime of the participants, project researchers estimate that society has received more than $7 for every $1 invested.