Ahead Start LLC is a private, locally owned and operated Early Intervention Services provider.

Our staff brings over 15 years of combined experience working with families of children birth to age six who have special needs.

Ahead Start can help by:

• Identifying and Assessing Special Needs

• Coordinating Services and Education for both Children and Parents

• Providing Play Groups along with Fun crafts and Activities

• Assisting your Child in Transitioning to a Classroom Setting

• Infant / Child Massage

* What is Early Intervention?

Early intervention applies to children of school age or younger who are discovered to have or be at risk of developing a handicapping condition or other special need that may affect their development.

Early intervention consists in the provision of services such children and their families for the purpose of lessening the effects of the condition. Early intervention can be remedial or preventive in nature--remediating existing developmental problems or preventing their occurrence.

Early intervention may focus on the child alone or on the child and the family together. Early intervention programs may be center-based, home-based, hospital-based, or a combination.

Services range from identification--that is, hospital or school screening and referral services--to diagnostic and direct intervention programs. Early intervention may begin at any time between birth and school age; however, there are many reasons for it to begin as early as possible.

Why Intervene Early?

There are three primary reasons for intervening early with an exceptional child: to enhance the child's development, to provide support and assistance to the family, and to maximize the child's and family's benefit to society.

Child development research has established that the rate of human learning and development is most rapid in the preschool years. Timing of intervention becomes particularly important when a child runs the risk of missing an opportunity to learn during a state of maximum readiness. If the most teachable moments or stages of greatest readiness are not taken advantage of, a child may have difficulty learning a particular skill at a later time.

Early intervention services also have a significant impact on the parents and siblings of an exceptional infant or young child. The family of a young exceptional child often feels disappointment, social isolation, added stress, frustration, and helplessness. The compounded stress of the presence of an exceptional child may affect the family's well-being and interfere with the child's development. Early intervention can result in parents having improved attitudes about themselves and their child, improved information and skills for teaching their child, and more release time for leisure and employment. Parents of gifted preschoolers also need early services so that they may better provide the supportive and nourishing environment needed by the child.

A third reason for intervening early is that society will reap maximum benefits. The child's increased developmental and educational gains and decreased dependence upon social institutions, the family's increased ability to cope with the presence of an exceptional child, and perhaps the child's increased eligibility for employment, all provide economic as well as social benefits.

Is Early Intervention Really Effective?

After nearly 50 years of research, there is evidence--both quantitative (data-based) and qualitative (reports of parents and teachers)--that early intervention increases the developmental and educational gains for the child, improves the functioning of the family, and reaps long-term benefits for society. Early intervention has been shown to result in the child: (a) needing fewer special education and other habilitative services later in life; (b) being retained in grade less often; and (c) in some cases being indistinguishable from non-special-needs classmates years after intervention.

Children receiving intervention are more committed to schooling and more of them finish high school and go on to postsecondary programs and employment than children who do not receive early intervention. They score higher on reading, arithmetic, and language achievement tests at all grade levels; showing a 50% reduction in the need for special education services through the end of high school. In addition, underachievement in the gifted child may be prevented by early identification and appropriate intervention.