For Kids With Disabilities, Early Intervention Boosts Academics Later

Accessing early intervention services like speech, occupational, physical or behavioral therapy in the first years of life can lead to more than developmental gains, new research suggests.

Children who receive early intervention by age 3 score better in English language arts and are more likely to meet academic standards in math and English in third grade, according to a first-of-its-kind study published in the journal JAMA Network Open.

For the study, researchers looked at public health and education records for more than 214,000 kids born in New York City between 1994 and 1998. They compared standardized test scores from third grade for the roughly 13,000 children who received early intervention to the others who did not.

Among children who had special education services at school, those who received early intervention as youngsters were 28% more likely to meet grade level standards in third grade for English language arts and 17% more likely to meet that benchmark in math.

“Our findings demonstrate that early intervention programs have quantifiable academic benefits for children with moderate to severe developmental delays or disabilities living in a large urban center,” said Jeanette Stingone, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health who led the study. “This study provides strong, population-level evidence that investments in early intervention are not only beneficial for children and families, but also for educational systems and communities.”

The benefits were especially pronounced among Latino children and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, the researchers said.

An accompanying commentary notes that the advantages of early intervention could be even greater today given the improvements in identifying and supporting kids with developmental disabilities in recent decades.

“Early childhood represents a critical window of opportunity,” Stingone said. “By identifying developmental delays early and connecting families to services, we can help set children on a stronger academic trajectory. These findings reinforce the importance of sustaining and strengthening early intervention programs so that all children — regardless of background — have the opportunity to thrive in school and beyond.”