Intervention

This study compares the effects of Relationship Focused Early Intervention on toddlers and preschool aged children who were classified as having either Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) (N = 20) or Developmental Disabilities (DD) (N=30). The intervention was conducted over a one year time period through weekly individual parent-child sessions. It focused on helping parents use Responsive Teaching strategies to encourage their children to acquire and use pivotal developmental behaviors that addressed their individualized developmental needs. Pre- post- comparisons indicated significant increases in parents ’ responsiveness and children’s pivotal behavior. Both groups of children made significant improvements in their cognitive, communication and socio-emotional functioning. However, children with PDD made statistically greater improvements on the developmental measures than children with DD. On several developmental measures, children’s improvements were related to increases in both their parents ’ responsiveness and their own pivotal behavior