The effects of a home-based intervention for young children with intellectual disabilities in Vietnam

Abstract

Background: This study was conducted to examine the impact of a 1-year intervention for children with intellectual disabilities (ID) in Vietnam.

Method: Subjects were 30 preschool-aged children with ID (ages 3 to 6 years). Sixteen were assigned to an intervention group and 14 to a control group. Based on the Portage Curriculum (CESA 5 2003), the intervention trained parents to work with their children through modelling and coaching by teachers during weekly home visits.

Results: Comparison of pre-, mid- and post-intervention assessments of the children based on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (Sparrow et al. 1984a) indicated that the intervention was promising: children in the intervention group improved significantly in most domains of adaptive behaviours, and also performed significantly better than the control group in the areas of personal care and motor skills.

Conclusions: The results from the Vietnam programme are discussed in terms of its implications and strategies for developing programmes for children with disabilities in developing countries.