Abstract
Professionals providing early intervention services are increasingly asked to provide scientific evidence that the clinical methods they use will lead to positive functional outcomes for children with developmental disabilities. To address the need for such evidence, the New York State Department of Health sponsored the development of 6 science-based clinical practice guidelines for children younger than 3 years with those developmental conditions most often seen in the state's Early Intervention Program. Separate guidelines were developed for autism/pervasive developmental disorders, communication disorders, Down syndrome, hearing impairment, motor disorders, and vision impairment. Consensus panels were convened to develop the guidelines. Each panel helped define the scope of the guideline and specific clinical questions to be addressed to ensure that the guideline would be useful to the intended target audiences of parents, professionals providing early intervention services, local Early Intervention Program administrators, and primary healthcare professionals. Each of the guidelines provides evidence-based and consensus recommendations about assessment and intervention methods and explicitly states the strength of evidence for each recommendation. It is hoped that these clinical practice guidelines will contribute to improved functional outcomes for young children with developmental conditions, both directly through improved knowledge and better communication among parents and professionals and indirectly by fostering program improvements and research.