The study aimed to compare the effects of breastfeeding education and skin-to-skin contact on breastfeeding efficiency and maternal attachment. This study was a three-group randomized controlled study. This study was conducted with 92 women in a delivery room in Türkiye between October 2021 and May 2022. The study consists of continuous early SSC…

Background: Despite evidence on their short-term effectiveness, the long-term effects of group-based parenting interventions are unclear, programs are hard to scale up, and effects on parents of infants and toddlers are mixed. Objective: We evaluate the impact of a parenting intervention, "Crianza Positiva," that combines 8 group…

Background: Sleep is an important physiological need for children with intellectual disabilities and their mothers. The present study aims to obtain detailed information on the factors that are hindering and facilitating the sleep quality of children with intellectual disabilities and their mothers. Method: Twenty-one mothers of children with…

Supportive early relationships are critical to young children's development. Previous research has focused primarily on aspects of specific parenting practices that impact infants' and toddlers' development. However, additional research is needed for a more nuanced understanding of the relationships among family experiences, parenting behaviors,…

Consistent, sensitive caregiving across home and childcare contexts supports optimal development. In this paper, we share the story of the development of Hearts and Minds on Babies (HMB) for Early Head Start (EHS) administrators, teachers, and parents. HMB was designed to support caregiver reflective functioning and sensitivity and reduce…

After deciding whether to breastfeed or formula feed, parents must determine when to introduce solid foods. We examined feeding behaviors of 131 first-time parents, applying the theory of planned behavior to our investigation. Results indicated that parents' attitudes influenced infant feeding behavior at 6 months old. Therefore, Extension…

Depression is a major global health concern, especially among mothers of young children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). While various risk and protective factors have been well-established, the role of fathers in potentially mitigating maternal depression remains understudied. This study aimed to investigate the association between…

The World Health Organization identified the promotion of "Nurturing Care Environments" as a global health priority. Responsive caregiving, 1 of 5 domains describing nurturing care, is critical for healthy child development. Relatively little research has evaluated population-level interventions aimed to increase responsive caregiving…

Prevention and early intervention programmes, which aim to educate and support parents and young children in the earliest stages of the family lifecycle, have become an increasingly popular policy strategy for tackling intergenerational disadvantage and developmental inequality. Evidence-based, joined-up services are recommended as best practice…

Retrospective parental reports are common in the developmental science literature, but their validity has been questioned. We investigated the consistency of retrospective maternal recall by comparing original with retrospective maternal reports in three domains (maternal cognitions, mother-reported child and mother behaviors, and observed child…

Introduction: The foundational concepts of early intervention are: family-centered and relationship-based practices, natural environments, child learning, adult learning, and quality team practices (Pletcher & Younggren, 2013). In this literature review, the authors consider the application of these concepts to services provided to families of…

Purpose: This article reports preliminary outcomes from a service-learning (SL) experience for graduate students in the Speech-Language Pathology program with incarcerated mothers who reside with their infants at a residential parenting program. We present an ecological model to serve as a framework for interpreting the impact of the experience on…

In this commentary, Buchheim states that she recognizes that infant-parent relationship has been shown to be of particular significance to preterm infants' socioemotional development, and that preterm children have been reported to be at higher risk of developing attachment insecurity and disorganized attachment. In the feature paper on attachment…

A randomized controlled trial was conducted to evaluate effects of the Joint Attention Mediated Learning (JAML) intervention. Toddlers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) aged 16-30 months (n = 144) were randomized to intervention and community control conditions. Parents, who participated in 32 weekly home-based sessions, followed a mediated…

Early parent-infant home visiting interventions have been found to be effective in both developed and developing countries. However, there is a need to build an evidence base for these interventions in the South African context, to inform local early childhood development policy. The Ububele Mother-Baby Home Visiting Programme in Alexandra,…