Does Early Intervention Truly Work?

The topic of this blog is one that is especially close to my heart, which is the topic of Early Intervention. However, before I go into detail concerning why I have such a close connection to this subject, I would like to discuss what it is and how certain people may feel about it. Early Intervention helps infants and toddlers with disabilities to learn the speaking, social and physical skills that they will need for success in school. Some people, such as myself, feel that Early Intervention is a great tool because it allows children with  the opportunity to discover, through the utilization of various educational techniques by their teachers, how to express their wants and needs in a more comprehensible way. However, other people say that these toddlers will learn how to perform these types and other types of daily activities on their own, making the necessity of Early Intervention unnecessary. Despite this, I know that Early Intervention can truly make a difference in the developing mind of a toddler, and this knowledge is from personal experience.

When I was diagnosed with autism when I was around 18 months old, my mother did not know what to do. She had little experience with children who had disabilities, but wanted to help me learn how to speak and interact with my family. She contacted my doctor, and the doctor referred me to a special Early Intervention program for students with autism. Through this program, I received music therapy, speech therapy and social groups that gradually helped me to learn how to talk to my family members and to play with other children. Although I agree with the opposition of these types of programs to the extent of my belief that I would have eventually spoken on my own, I do not believe that it would have happened as early as it did without the guidance of my Early Intervention teachers. As a result, I do not believe that it would be best for children with disabilities if their parents simply waited for them to improve, as these children would have no choice but to forfeit valuable interactions with the other people in their lives if this was to happen.

Is Early Intervention Important for Children with Autism?