The Early Intervention Programs - Term Paper Example

Brief Introduction The early intervention programs include improving the child’s classroom experience. The programs focus on helping the poor children cope with the complex classroom learning environment. President Lyndon Johnson’s Head Start program continues to be implemented in our current generation. There are several early intervention programs. Some quarters feel the early intervention programs are not effective in improving the child’s classroom learning processes (Currie, 2001). Further, the Early Intervention Programs are worthwhile. The program focuses on four major inter-related learning-related areas. The four areas are cognitive development, physical development, social development, and emotional development. Catering to the four areas enhances the poor child’s learning capacity. The early intervention programs like IDEA and Early Head Start are worthwhile endeavors (Currie, 2001). 2. (A) Brief Summary of the study findings Early Intervention Programs are Worthwhile A. Early Intervention Programs – definition The Early Head Start program is defined as the early intervention learning strategy of our government. The program helps families equip their child for their first entry into the formal school classroom environment. The program caters to families having children within the three years old or younger age group. Likewise, the program includes mothers who are currently pregnant. The program trains the parents ensure the child learning experiences are maximized (Currie, 2001). B. The Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) intervention program is worthwhile (Duncan, 2010). The Early Learning Program cooperates with other education programs that are being implemented by our United States government. The IDEA program focuses on helping the disabled members of North American society improve their learning capabilities. The IDEA program includes a specialized learning program that is fitted for the disabled person. For example, the Braille learning system is used for the blind learning child. Sign language is used as a medium of learning instruction in a classroom of deaf-mute students. Further, the IDEA program is divided into several areas of child learning specialization. One area is reading comprehension. Another area is disabled child learning progress tracking. A third area is child learning accommodations. A fourth area is child learning assessment. A fifth area is child behavior improvement leading to better learning capacity. The IDEA program states the United States government prioritizes learning programs that are tailored to fit each disabled person’s learning situation (Duncan, 2010). C. Use of play materials early intervention program is worthwhile (Nwokah et al., 2013). The findings emphasize incorporating play in the child’s early learning experiences. The program teaches parents the importance of play and toys to enhance the child’s eagerness and capacity to learn. In terms of the child’s optimum learning capacity, the toys are important learning materials. Children need toys for the faster development of their social, language learning or communication, cognitive, and self-control skills. The games improve the growing child’s use of one’s temporal as well as frontal brain areas. Due to poverty’s prohibiting the family from buying more appropriate expensive toys, the poor children learn to adapt home objects as play objects, improving their learning, social, communication, and development skills. D. The PL 99.457 family-based early intervention program is worthwhile: Ecocultural Family Service (Bernheimer, 1990). The study shows that each family learns to adapt their child -learning strategies to each unique family situation. For example, the African American Family rears the growing child to adapt to the African American learning culture. The African American culture includes how the typical African American person would act to a given situation or message. On the other hand, the White American Family rears the growing child to adapt to the White American learning culture. The poor family adapts the child’s learning strategies within the poor learning environment. Lastly, the Muslim family rears the child in a Muslim-based child learning environment. The reason is obvious. The parents want the children to continue the family culture. The family culture includes incorporating the learning culture of the family or community. E. Early Intervention improves the communication and cognitive (learning) skills of autism children. The Early Head Start learning program includes scrutinizing the learning capacity of the children. If a child is found to be afflicted with autism, the program requires the child will be included in the IDEA program. The program focuses on enhancing the disabled child’s learning program. The IDEA program includes children falling under the autism learning group. The IDEA program allows free public education to children within the 3 years old to 21 years old age range. The IDEA law requires only disabled are permitted under the program. The autism-afflicted child will undergo the early head start’s individualized family service learning plans as well as individualized education learning programs. The head start program requires the cooperative and complementary efforts of the government, parents, and learning professionals, especially special education (sped) teachers (Gilford, 2013). F. The Early Head Start early intervention program is worthwhile. The Early Head Start early intervention program prepares the poor children for the complex integration from the comforts of the poor family home the classroom. The program prepares the poor child to be on equal learning status as the more economically blessed classmates. The program is the brainchild of former United States President Lyndon Johnson (Currie, 2001). Further, the program offers part day education-based intervention to the poor 3 year old or 4 year old child who is expected to enter ones’ first days in school. In 1999, the Head Start intervention program’s fund reached as high as the estimated $4.6 billion. The program focuses on the establishing a healthy development of the growing child. The program includes preparing the parents to the life of school-based child. The pre-school program is geared towards the child’s smooth integration into the elementary school years (Waldfogerl, 1999). Furthermore, the program focuses on the child’s health. The program helps resolve the poor family’s unmet requirements. The unmet requirements include healthcare, emotional support, and family counseling. By helping improve the health of the sick children, the healthy children eager to learn the rudiments of education. On the other hand, a sick child is not interested in the teachers’ classroom topics. The program will implement the IDEA learning program for children who are classified as afflicted with a learning disability (Jackman, 2011). Counter argument The statement that early intervention program is not worthwhile is erroneous. A research conducted showed that poor children are less equipped to handle the rigors and complexities of the classroom program, compared to children of more financially capable pupils. This is the very essence of the Early Head Start learning program. The program targets the children belonging to poor families. The program implements diversely unique learning program that snugly fits into increasing the child’s capacity to absorb the topics discussed in the physical class room (American Psychological Association, 2004). (b) Reflect on unanswered questions: A. I would like to know why the more economically blessed children are not included in the program. Excluding the rich children may border on discrimination against the rich children. On the other hand, the government can explain to the general public that the government’s fund scarcity forced the government to allocate the scarce funds to the economically poor citizens. When the government does this, then my question is answered. B. I had expected to find out that rich kids were exempted from the early intervention program in order to save on government funds. The rich families can pay for their own early intervention programs. However, the government has to explain to the general public. The government’s explanation will cast out all doubts of possible fund allocation discrimination. C. I am very satisfied with the data gathering methodologies of the researches. The researches focused on interviews. The researchers interviewed the research respondents. The respondents’ answers were indicated in the researchers’ findings and conclusions. D. If I were to carry out a study of the topic, I would repeat the process. The research repetition will affirm the findings and conclusions of the prior research. Likewise, the research repetition may negate the prior research findings as well as conclusions. Research repetitions will prove that the prior research gathering steps and analysis procedures were perfectly done. E. Due to certain constraints, there are limitations of the findings and the study. One limitation is fund availability. The researchers may not have enough funds to gather the required minimum research data. Another limitation is accessibility to primary and secondary resources. The researchers may not be able to access the required primary and secondary resources needed to present a convincing research findings and conclusions. Another limitation is the time constraint. The researchers may not be able to find the required data within the required time constraints. F. The results of the findings can be generalized to include children from other groups’ cultures, genders, and ages. The research may focus on the Native American Indian children. The research may focus on the Mexican children. The research may focus on the rich children, as possible Early Head Start students. Other issues I would like to know about the topic I would like to know why the more economically blessed children are not included in the program. I would like to know if there are some rich children or relatives of the rich children who may protest the government’s “bias” action. The action may be allocating funds to the poor residents as unfairly leaving the rich residents out of the early head start learning program. Lastly, I would like to know if the current funds allocated to the Early Head Start should be increased to better improve the effectiveness or efficacy of the Early Head Start program, in terms of better preparedness to enter the reality of the four walls of the classroom environment. What I expected to find out about that was missing from the articles I had expected to find out that the program included all kids belonging to the same age ranges, possible 0 years old to 3 years old. However, I had realized that the rich kids were exempted from the early intervention program. I think the government was only targeting the poor kids because the rich kids’ family had the money to pay for early learning processes that mimic the training program of the current Early Head Start program. Satisfaction I am very satisfied with the data gathering methodologies of the topic. The methodologies used contribute to the preparation of realistic research findings. The realistic findings precipitate to convincing research conclusions. Anyone who reads the findings and conclusions of the research will be convinced to accept the research outcomes. Carrying out the same research process If I were to carry out a study of the topic, I would repeat the process. By repeating the research design, I will be able to use my research findings to affirm the findings of the prior research. By repeating the data gathering results of the prior research, I will be able to contradict the findings of the prior research. Limitations of the findings and the study Due to certain constraints, there are limitations of the findings and the study. One limitation is that the research findings and the study focuses on the poor children as recipients of the free early head start program. The program should also focus on the effects of the refusal of the government to fund the early head start training for rich kids. Another limitation is accessibility to primary and secondary resources of the research. The research should include gathering an optimum number of secondary and primary resources to arrive at more convincing research findings and conclusions. Another limitation is the time constraint. With more time, more respondents can be interviewed. With more time, more secondary resources can be acquired. With more time, the researchers can review the findings to prove the presented research findings and conclusions are free from avoidable inaccuracies. Further, the results of the findings can be generalized to include children from other groups’ cultures, genders, and ages. The research findings primarily did not focus one culture, group or community. Instead, the research focused on all children within the 0 year old to 3 year old Early Head Start age bracket. Consequently, the findings can apply to African American, Asian American, or Native Indian American children. Conclusion The early intervention programs focuses on enhancing the child’s classroom experience. The programs prioritize the development of the cognitive development, physical development, social development, and emotional development. The program caters helping parents and children adjust to the physical classroom activities. Evidently, the early intervention programs, especially the effective IDEA and Early Head Start programs are worthwhile child intervention endeavors. References: Association, A. P. (2004, April 22). American Psychological Association. Retrieved April 17, 2014, from http://www.apa.org/research/action/early.aspx Bernheimer, L. (1990). Ecocultural Theory as a Context for the Individual Family Service Plan. Journal of Early Intervention , 14 (3), 219-233. Currie, J. (2001). Early Childhood Education Programs. Journal of Economic Perspectives , 15 (2), 213-238. Duncan, A. (2010). 35 Years of Progress in Educating Children with Disabilities Through IDEA. New York: U.S.Dept of Education. Gilford, S. (2013). Learning from Head Start: A Teacher's Guide to School Readiness. New York: R & L Press. Jackman, H. (2011). Early Education Curriculum: A Child's Connection to the World. New York: Cengage Learning Press. Nwokah et al. (2013). The Use of Play Materials in Early Intervention. American Journal of Play , 5 (2), 187-219. Waldfogerl, J. (1999). Early Childhood Interventions and Outcomes. London: London School of Economics. Read More