Child Factors Associated With Enrollment in Part C Early Intervention Among Children Adopted From China

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The provision of services under Part C of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act is built on a premise that children benefit from early intervention. This article presents findings from a study of children adopted from China. Given information obtained from a survey, the researchers grouped children as (a) those who received early intervention, (b) those who did not receive early intervention and whose parents had concerns about their behavior and development, and (c) those who did not receive early intervention and whose parents had no concerns about their behavior and development. Results showed that parental judgments of their children’s behavior at the time of adoption best explained differences between the parents whose children received early intervention and parents who had no concerns about their children’s behavior and who did not receive early intervention. The behavioral markers that differentiated the groups from one another were as follows: child affect, poor attention, eating and feeding difficulties, problems communicating, poor physical health, and social interaction problems. Findings indicate that parents’ appraisals can be an important source of information for eligibility determination for this population of children.