The experimental Mother-Child Home Program, aimed at the prevention of educational disadvantaged," was shown to be effective in repeated studies away from the home base of the Verbal Interaction Project. (Author/SP)

This paper provides a checklist of 10 potential ethical problems associated with intervention in families through home-based programs. Problems which directly involve program participants are (1) pressure on parents to join the program, (2) violation of confidentiality, (3) intrusiveness, (4) need to respect the family's style of living, (5)…

The role of the toy demonstrator in a home-based, mother-involved intervention effort (Verbal Interaction Project) is presented in this handbook for staff members. It is believed that the prerequisites for functioning in the toy demonstrator's role are a sense of responsibility, patience with the children and their mothers, and willingness to be…

Information to assist local institutions in operating Mother-Child Programs i s provided in this manual as part of the Verbal Interaction Project. Following an introduction, the manual discusses the following topics: (1) Ingredients and Procedures of a Mother-Child Program, (2) Major Program Components, (3) Administrative and Other Practical…

Progress during the first two years (1967-1968 and 1968-1969) of a three-year home-based, mother-child intervention program called the Verbal Interaction Project is described. The project was planned for the cognitive enrichment of preschoolers 2 to 4 years old, from lower income families. The program utilized specially trained home visitors,…

The range of cognitive gains made by low-income preschool children in the home-based Mother-Child Home Program is discussed as to the causes of the wide variability found. At the end of one year (October 1967 to May 1968) in the program, 33 low-income preschoolers made an average Stanford-Binet IQ gain of 17 points. The varibility within this…

This essay discusses methodological and ethical problems in the implementation and evaluation of home-based intervention programs for young children and their families. Part I notes the difficulties in (1) selecting an appropriate research design to evaluate a program (e.g., preventing sample bias), (2) specifying precisely the intervention method…

This report examines the Family Cognitive Profile Study which provided for the collection and analysis of data regarding the IQ gains of children enrolled in the Mother Child Home Program (MCHP). The existence of siblings among the subjects of the MCHP was noted by the Verbal Interaction Project (VIP), the research organization responsible for…

The verbal and cognitive effects of both a Toy Demonstrator and a similar home visitor who abstained from stimulation techniques were studied in the Verbal Interaction Project. Three groups of children, totalling 54, participated in the study from July 1967 through June 1968. One group received "double intervention" (Toy Demonstrator),…

The Mother-Child Home Program was planned as a home-based, two-year cognitive intervention method. Women with varied incomes and education, both volunteer and paid, made 30-minute home visits twice weekly to help mothers become cognitive trainers of their own toddlers (starting at age two). Mother-child verbal interaction was stimulated with gifts…

This followup study of the effects of the Mother-Child Home Program developed by the Verbal Interaction Project (VIP) measures the school performance of nine groups of 162 third grade children from low income families. The program of 92 home sessions spaced over two school years focused on the mother and child as a socially interactive dyad, and…

This presentation reports research findings which link children's social-emotional skills at ages 4 and 6 to concurrent and antecedent verbal interaction behaviors of their mothers. Forty-five low-income mothers and children who voluntarily participated in the Mother-Child Home Program of the Verbal Interaction Project from 1972 to 1974 were…