EARLY TRAINING

PROJECT
BY: ASHLEY DRUNGIL
 About the Early Training Project:
Developed by Susan Gray, Rupert Klaus, and Barbara Ramsey
in 1962.

Took place in Abbotfield, Tennessee.

The program was created to help children prepare for school

by offsetting the effects of being born into poverty.

Results of the Study:

The goals of the program
were associated with both
attitudes and aptitudes
related to achievement.
The Early Training Project reported
improvements in various cognitive measures.
Improvements faded out after these children
entered school.
Few effects seen when these children were 21.
61 children were involved in the
program:
4-5 years old, all African American

Economically disadvantaged based on:

1. Parents occupation
2. Parents education
3. Income
4. Housing conditions
The program included: 4-5 hours a day,
A 10 week part-day preschool program during the summer for 5 days a week.
2-3 years.
1 day a week for
Home visits during the year, when the preschool program was not in
about 1 hour.
session, with a specially trained home visitor for 2-3 years.
How were children grouped
for the study?

1st Group: 3 years of the weekly meetings and 3 summer of the 10

week program. Group
s 1-3
2nd Group: 2 years of weekly meetings and 2 years of the 10 week includ
program (started a year later than the 1st group). ed in
the 61
3rd Group: Local control group. Received tests, but no childr
intervention. *Preschool only en

4th Group: Control group from a different city.

 What went on during home
visits and preschool?
During home visits
-Mothers were taught to create educational experiences for their
child with the everyday items in their homes.
-Home visitors also provided information to participating mothers
about community resources.
-Skilled preschool teachers with some home visit experience.
-Specific to each mothers life situation.

During the preschool program

-Children met in groups
-Were assigned 1 experienced 1st grade teacher.
-3 or 4 assistant teachers divided equally by sex and race.
-Addressed topics related to attitudes and aptitudes of achievement.
 Attitudes
Achievement motivation related
to:
School-type activities, in
persistence, in ability to delay
gratification; and in general interest
in typical school materials, such as
books, crayons, puzzles, and the
like (Gray & Klaus, 1970, p. 3).
Both defined as
necessary for
success in school.
Parent attitudes toward
achievement:
Aspirations they had for their
child related to school success.
Aptitudes
Capacity/ability to learn
Perceptual development
Acquisition of basic concepts
Language development
Children were assessed before and after each
summer session using the:
Stanford-Binet IQ Test
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) How Results
1st, 2nd, 3rd summer = pre and post-tests In all 4 were
groups
4th, 5th, 7th summer = follow-up tests
May 1962-July 1968
Concluded:

Metropolitan Achievement Test: Subtests

include
World knowledge
Word discrimination Measured only
Reading 1st-4th Grade
Arithmetic Computation
Spelling
Language
Arithmetic problem-solving and concepts
Results:
1. IQ tests- Experimental groups higher than control by the end of the study.

. Parallel decline after 1st grade in all groups.

. Significant differences remained.

. Researcher mention the differences between IQs with what little intervention higher
scoring children had.
It was not sufficient, however, to offset the massive effects of a low income home in which
the child had lived since birth onward (Gray & Klaus, 1970, p. 13).

2. PPVT- Rose during intervention, leveled off after 1 st grade, then a slight decline.

. Group differences no longer significant.

Results:
3. Metropolitan Achievement Test- No significant differences besides reading,
where the local control group had higher scores than the distant control group.

Experimental group only scored higher on 2 or 3 subtests in the first couple of

years.

4. Diffusion- Research under the direction of the writers had found both vertical
and horizontal diffusion in families.

Horizontal Diffusion (family-to-family)- Siblings in local control group were

superior to distant control group.

Vertical Diffusion (family member-family member)- Influence of the mother on

not only the target-child, but the younger siblings as well. Most influential on
siblings born 1- 2 and a half years after the target-child.
 Program Strengths & Weaknesses:
Strengths Weaknesses
Occurred before major interests in these early
intervention program. (No pressure to change Success of offsetting aversive effects of living in poverty was not
procedures or draw premature conclusions). achieved.

Still an effect after 2 year of not receiving
intervention. (Seen in IQ scores).
Cannot carry the entire burden of offsetting
these effects. Can only create a basis.
Family was not able to carry on what they learned to offset these
effects alone.
When children were followed up with at the age of 21, there were no
statistically significant findings between experimental and control
groups.

Overall, any positive effects on the participants

of the Early Training Project faded out once they
entered school.
 DEC Recommended Practices
Practitioners provide services and supports in natural and inclusive environments during
daily routines and activities to promote the childs access to and participation in learning experiences
(Division for Early Childhood, 2014, p. 8).

Related to the home visits of the program using materials the family already has.

Practitioners work with the family to identify, access, and use formal and informal resources
and supports to achieve family-identified outcomes or goals (Division for Early Childhood, 2014, p.
10).

During home visits, mothers were also informed of various resources.

CEC Special Education Standards for Professional Practice

Actively support and engage in research intended to improve the learning outcomes of
persons with exceptional learning needs (Council for Exceptional Children, 2011, p. 4).

The research related to the program engaged in improving learning outcomes through prevention.
 Areas of Improvement:
DEC Recommended Practices
Practitioners use a variety of planned and timely strategies with the child and
family before, during, and after the transition to support successful
adjustment and positive outcomes for both the child and family (Division
for Early Childhood, 2014, p. 15).

With what is now known about the field of early intervention, the Early
Training Project could have improved on transitioning children and
families into the school systems. If researchers wanted strategies and
knowledge to continue they could have supported families during the
adjustment period.
 Areas of Improvement:
DEC Recommended Practices
Practitioners promote the childs social-emotional development by observing,
interpreting, and responding contingently to the range of the childs emotional expressions
(Division for Early Childhood, 2014, p. 13).

The program had a large focus on improving the cognitive skills of the participating
children. Adding in a social-emotional piece could have created a strong foundation to
build cognitive skills on.

Practitioners conduct assessments that include all areas of development and

behavior to learn about the childs strengths, needs, preferences, and interests (Division
for Early Childhood, 2014, p. 7).

The assessments used did not include all areas of development.

 Areas of Improvement:

CEC Special Education Standards for Professional Practice

Actively seek and use the knowledge of parents and individuals

with exceptionalities when planning, conducting, and evaluating special
education services and empower them as partners in the educational process
(Council for Exceptional Children, 2011, p. 4).

Besides tailoring sessions to lives of the individual mothers, involving them

in assessment and intervention planning would hopefully create a learning
environment that will carry on after intervention stops.
Action Steps for the Program:
*Practices to *Action Steps to be Taken Timelines and Resources and *Indicators of
be Addressed Persons Supports Needed Success
Responsible (e.g.,
teachers,
administrators,
families)
1. Send preschool teachers and Responsibility of the Training session The child is being
assistants to training on the administrators, on social- exposed to strategies
Promote topic. teachers, assistants, and emotional both at home and in
social- home visitors. development. preschool that promote
emotional 2. Hire home visitor to teach his/her social-
development mother relationship focused emotional
strategies. development.

1. Provide an in-home session In-home educator, Train the in- A successful transition
for the family to learn about the supervisors. home educator of the family from
Plan to assist transition from preschool to to assist the preschool to grade
with grade school. 1. 6 months before the family with the school marked by a
transitioning 2. Create a plan for the family child enters grade transition. continuous increase in
and child to promote success in school. Supervisor or in- the test scores of the
school. 2. During the home educator children.
3. Monitor the family after transition. will need to
transition period. 3. 6 months after the follow-up with
transition. the family.
Action Steps for the Program:
*Practices to be *Action Steps to be Timelines and Resources and *Indicators of
Addressed Taken Persons Supports Needed Success
Responsible (e.g.,
teachers,
administrators,
families)
1. Actively involve the Beginning next Educate the Each family has an
family in assessments of sessions: implementers on intervention plan, or
the child. how to better IFSP, that was created
Use Parent Responsibility of the involve parents. by the professional
Knowledge 2. Involve the family in in-home educator and and family together.
planning intervention family. Educate the family
based on the priorities on how they can be
they share. active participants.

Beginning next Obtain All areas of

1. Provide child sessions: assessment development are
Assess in all assessments in all tools to help assessed in the
areas areas of In-home educators guide children involved
development. are responsible. intervention in the program.
2. Provide family and monitor
assessments. progress.
Provide training
for educators to
know how to
Social Validity:
The program did not yield the significant results researchers had hoped for (offsetting the
effects of poverty).

Gray & Klaus (1970) discuss the fact that even the most effective intervention programs
for children cannot immunize them from effects of a low income home and schools that
do not meet these needs.

The lasting effects seen in the IQ scores of the children involved and the effects of
diffusion, according to the authors of the study,
gives us some hope that intervention programs can have a lasting effect that goes beyond
the children that were the target of that intervention program (Gray & Klaus, 1970, p. 18).

Shows the importance of learning from sufficient research such as the research done on
the Early Training Project to improve the field of early intervention.

(At the time there were very few, short lasting programs such as this).
 References
Besharov, D. J., Germanis, P., Higney, C. A., & Call, D. M. (2011). Early Training
Project. Assessments of Twenty-Six Early Childhood Evaluations, 9, 1-8. Retrieved from
http://www.welfareacademy.org/pubs/early_education/pdfs/Besharov_ECE
assessments_Early_Training_Project.pdf

Council for Exceptional Children. (2011). CEC special education professional practice standards.
Retrieved from http://www.cec.sped.org/~/media/Files/Standards/Professional%20Ethics
%20and%20Pr ctice%20Standards/CEC%20Special%20Education%20Professional
%20Practice%20Stand rds.pdf

Division for Early Childhood. (2014). DEC recommended practices in early intervention/early
childhood special education 2014. Retrieved from
http://www.decsped.org/recommendedpractices

Gray, S. W., & Klaus, R. A. (1970). The early training project: A seventh-year report. Child
Development, 41(4), 909-924. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.ep10403093