Effectiveness of cognitive early intervention program for preschool children at risk for specific learning disabilities

Purpose: The aim of this study is to develop a cognitive early intervention program for children between the ages of 60-72 months who are at risk for specific learning disabilities and to determine the effectiveness of this program. Method: First of all, program development studies were carried out in line with the data obtained through literature reviews, semi-structured interview forms and demographic information forms developed by the researcher from eight preschool teachers working actively with preschool children between the ages of 60-72 months in different provinces of Türkiye and five academicians who carried out studies on specific learning disabilities in early childhood. After this process, studies were conducted on the effectiveness of the the Cognitive Early Intervention (CEI) Program. In this context, pilot studies were conducted with a total of six preschool children aged 60-72 months, five of whom showed typical development and one was assessed to be at risk for specific learning disabilities. The main study regarding the effectiveness of the CEI Program was carried out with 28 preschool children who were considered to be at risk for specific learning disabilities. Efficacy studies were carried out in 11 kindergartens in two middle schools and two primary schools in Mersin province. At this stage, while a random design with pretest-posttest matched control group, which is one of the true experimental designs was used, the Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale and Learning Disability Early Symptoms Screening Scale (LDESSS) and Problem Solving Skills Scale (PSSS) and the informal evaluation form based on the CEI Program developed by the researcher were used as data collection tools. Results: As a result of the statistical analyzes, findings indicated that the CEI Program developed for preschool children at risk for specific learning disabilities within the scope of this research had a significant increase in the PSSS and the informal evaluation form based on the CEI Program scores of the participants in the experimental group, when compared with the participants in the control group of the study. Conclusion and Suggestions: Within the scope of the research, it was determined that the BEM Program developed for preschool children at risk for specific learning disabilities was effective in improving attention, perception, memory, concept development, problem-solving and executive functions skills of children participating in the study who were evaluated at risk for specific learning disabilities, and these skills were also preserved according to the results of the control sessions. It is considered that using the CEI Program will be beneficial for 60-72 months old children who continue their educational activities in preschool institutions to start primary school more equipped cognitively. In addition, it is recommended that the program be adapted to be used in digital tools such as tablets, computers, etc., and that necessary dissemination activities should be carried out. Keywords: Specific learning disabilities, Preschool, Cognitive Early Intervention Program