Anxiolytics/Hypnotics

Abstract

Synonyms Early intervention; Prevention of mental retardation Definition The Abecedarian Project was an early intervention project conducted by Craig Ramey and Francis Campbell on a mostly African-American sample of children at-risk for academic failure. The children have been followed from preschool into early adulthood with positive intellectual results. Description Ramey and Campbell conducted a prospective longitudinal study on approximately 50 children born between 1972 and 1977 [1]. The children were considered to be at risk for intellectual delays and academic problems because they were born to mostly young single mothers living in poverty. Children were screened for inclusion based on the number of risk factors they faced, including low parental education, father absence, receiving welfare, etc. The researchers randomly assigned 50+ matched children to a no-intervention control group as well. The goal of the preventive intervention was to prevent cognitive delay or non-biologically based mental retardation. Additional areas of interest included academic and social outcomes ranging from preventing grade retention to preventing teen crime. Interventions for the preschool group included intensive pre-literacy work on language, learning, self-help, and motor skills. The children were also provided medical care at the intervention preschool site. Treatment children were exposed to high quality preschool with low adult/child ratios for the first 5 years of life. Interestingly, at kindergarten , both the intervention and control children were then randomly assigned to a school age (SA) intervention plan. This SA intervention consisted of assigning children to a home/school teacher who helped children with school work at home and at school. They also advocated on behalf of the families for social services, medical care, etc. The SA intervention continued for 3 years. This study design resulted in four groups that could be compared at the study's end: Preschool + School Age Interventions (PSA), Preschool + No School Age (PNSA), No Preschool + School Age (NPSA), and No Preschool + No School Age (NPNSA) intervention. During preschool, children were assessed on language, cognitive, perceptual-motor and social developmental tasks from 6 to 54 months of age. By 18 months of age, the intervention group had reached national averages on all tests and far surpassed the control group, which declined by 18 months of age to below national averages. When assessed at 12 and 15 years of age [2], the PSNSA group still showed academic and intellectual advantages over groups that had not received early preschool intervention. For example, IQ scores for PNSA were average 95 points while the NPNSA group averaged 90. The NPSA group had advantages over the NPNSA group, but overall, later school age interventions were inferior to those conducted during the preschool years. The children were assessed again between ages 16-21 [3] in order to determine whether they had a better quality of life, including fewer criminal behaviors. However, there were no significant differences found between the groups in numbers, types, or severity of crimes committed. The authors suggest that to prevent crime, interventions must