Evaluation of an islandwide screening, assessment and treatment program

Abstract

This article reports on the effectiveness of the Islandwide Screenin& Assessment, and Treatment Program of the Child Development Project in Bermuda. From 1982, approximately 1100 fvnilits with 2-year-old children were screened for children's cognitive and language delay, for behaviour management problems and for other home characteristics that put children at risk for later school failure.Children who failed the screening and subsequent assessment procedures (of whom random samples received treatment) and samples of others who passed screening and assessment were evaluated from 1984 to 1986 at 4 years of age. This article focuses on the results of the cognitive and language programs; the more problematic behaviour management analyses were reported elsewhere (Miller and Scarr, 1988). The screening pmceduxee and assessment measures developed for this project were themselves evaluated and adjusted to maximize efficiency and costeffectiveness. The screening and assessment procedures proved effective in bringing to the attention of the Child Development Project those families and children who need developmental services, and in not overidentifying normal children as potentially delayed in development. Two kinds of treatment services were compared: The Mother-Child Home Program (MCHP), administered by paraprofessional toy demonstrators, and other interventions tailored by professionals to the language and cognitive problems of the child (called 'tailored programs'). Children who were not extremely delayed or disturbed were randomly assigned either to the MCHP or to a tailored program. Neither intervention program was preferable to the other. Even though improved, the 4-year-olds identified as developmentally delayed at 24 months still lagged behind children who passed all parts of screening and those ~ ~ S. Scarr et al.who failed screening but passed assessment 2 years earlier. The screening and assessment procedures were very effective in the early identification of children with developmental problems, but the treatment programs failed to bring most children to normal levels of cognitive and language functioning.

The effects of maternal employment and non‐maternal infant care on development at two and four years

“…One-half the children were randomly assigned to the MCHP and one-half were assigned to a specific tailored programme. No significant effects were found between treatment programmes so that the differences found in this study could not be attributed to effects of the treatment programmes (Scarr et al, 1989).…”

“…The large population sample (total sample) affords an opportunity to evaluate the effects of maternal employment during a child's infancy on later preschool development among a sample that comprises 86% of the entire population in two successive annual birth cohorts (Scarr et al, 1989). The research sample, composed of 75.3% of children at risk for developmental problems and 24.7% controls, affords a look at the effects of maternal employment and non-maternal care during the first year of life on the longitudinal development of children who may be particularly vulnerable to non-optimal care.…”

American child care today.

“…In Bermuda, an islandwide screening, assessment, and treatment program was implemented to help children with developmental problems (Scarr, McCartney, Miller, Hauenstein, & Ricciuti, 1994). Child-care histories were also ascertained.…”