Evaluation Summary
The evaluation results of the Abecedarian Project demonstrate that early education for at-risk children within a safe, responsive, and stimulating environment can produce positive and long-lasting effects on the course of development. The Abecedarian Project is the only early childhood education program that has demonstrated statistically significant cognitive benefits into young adulthood. The four key elements of the Abecedarian Approach constitute a powerful tool for early childhood professionals to improve the competence and quality of life, particularly for children from low resource environments.

Staffing Requirement/Training
Staff members must possess strong language skills to teach language to young children and to effectively communicate with children's family members and/or primary caregivers. It is also recommended that lead teachers possess a bachelor's or master's degree in education and that teaching assistants possess at least a high school diploma.

The original program was implemented in a child development center with teaching staff comprised of a lead teacher and at least one teaching assistant per child group. Staff to child ratios ranged from 1:3 for infants to 1:6 for children aged four to five.

Child's Age at Program Start
4 Months

Duration
More than 36 months

The Program Package includes:

• The Abecedarian Approach Program Summary. Provides a general overview of the program and how the program has demonstrated positive impacts on child developmental outcomes.
• Abecedarian: The Ideas, the Approach, and the Findings. This book provides in-depth information about the program's history, research findings, and program implementation guidelines.
• The Creative Curriculum LearningGames. A complete set of five books used to implement the LearningGames element of the Abecedarian Approach.
• Conversation Books A complete set of seven bilingual (English- and Spanish-Language) books used to implement the conversational reading element of the Abecedarian Approach.
• Implementation Checklists. A set of four implementation checklists that help guide implementation of the four key elements of the Abecedarian Approach as they are meant to be used in classrooms or child development centers. Checklist #1: Learning Games, Checklist #2: Conversational Reading, Checklist #3: Language Priority, Checklist #4: Enriched Caregiving
• Teacher Training Handouts. The 3S Strategy: See, Show, Say, The 3N Strategy: Notice, Nudge, Narrate
• Early Intervention Evidence-Based Practice Resource Guide. Interactive, easy-to-use tool that consists of practical tips and resources designed to assist professionals and organizations to select, adopt, and implement early intervention evidence-based practice. This program supports parents and educators to facilitate positive developmental outcomes for infants and toddlers prenatally exposed to drugs. The Outcome Curriculum contains more than 400 age-appropriate activities covering six developmental areas: cognitive, behavior/emotional, self-help, language, fine motor, and gross motor.
• Telephone technical support on implementation for 1 year
.