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Prematurity and low birth weight (LBW) are two major biological factors that put infants and young children at high risk for developmental delays or disabilities. While survival rates for premature and LBW children have improved, incidence figures have changed little over the past 20 years; in fact, the incidence of LBW has increased. Although the vast majority of LBW children have normal outcomes, as a group, they have higher risk for subnormal growth, illnesses, and neurodevelopmental problems. The purpose of this article is to examine the factors that influence the effectiveness of early intervention for premature, LBW children and to describe a strategy for linking assessment and early intervention. Linking assessment and intervention involves comprehensive assessment; a team approach to both assessment and intervention; empowering and enabling families; and the development of functional goals and objectives.

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Article Descriptorsinfants; severely handicapped; parent training; skill generalization; motor skills, cognitive/prespeech skills; direct instruction of parents; multiple baseline. Mothers of two severely handicappedinfants (CA 4 and 14 months, respectively) were in structed how to teach their children three tasks. A 60-year-old foster mother of a 4-month-old infant taught her child to track visually, auditorially localize a sound, and roll from prone to supine. A 29-year-old mother of a 14-month-old infant taught her child to reach for an object, bear weight in a puppy-prone position, and bear weight in a sitting position. The procedure used to teach each mother to train these skills, termed the direct instruction model, relied heavily upon task analysis. The results obtained suggest that the mothers did learn to teach quickly and that once they implemented what they had learned, each of their children acquired the desired responses and maintained them over time. Pre training and posttraining probes conducted in a different setting suggest that each child had generalized the ac quired responses from home to school. These results are discussed both in terms of their im plications for the structure of future parent train ing efforts as well as for additional research.

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