Early Childhood Interventions

Early intervention is typically prescribed and provided to children with delayed development. These delays may be in the areas of language, motor skills, physical development, and social-emotional development. Early intervention is typically conducted between birth and 3 years, though some children receive early intervention over a longer time period, based on individual need and specific diagnoses (e.g., autism spectrum disorder [ASD]). Although many health-related fields such as psychology, behavior analysis, speech therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy offer early childhood intervention to children with developmental delays, the focus of this entry is on a behavioral approach to early intervention based on the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA).

A behavioral approach to early intervention has received extensive empirical support and is recommended by federal and state ...