Research suggests that high quality early care and education programs can have a significant impact on improving the cognitive, academic and social skills of all children, especially those most at risk for later school failure. A number of states are developing Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) to assess and improve the quality of…

The estimation of fetal birth weight is an important factor in the management of high risk pregnancies. The information and knowledge gained through this study, comparing a combination of various fetal parameters using computer assisted analysis, will help the obstetrician to screen the high risk pregnancies, monitor the growth and development,…

Maine has two initiatives that build on Early Head Start (EHS). The first initiative, Fund for a Healthy Maine, has since 2001 provided tobacco settlement money to existing Head Start and EHS programs to expand the number of children who receive full-day, full-year services. Local programs have the option of using these funds for EHS, depending on…

This paper describes an exploratory evaluation of the Peers Early Education Partnership "Room to Play", an innovative and experimental "drop-in" service seeking to attract and engage "hard-to-reach" families in one of the most deprived areas of a Midlands city. Located in a shop unit of a busy community shopping…

For more than a decade, Florida's Palm Beach County has been building a system of prevention and early intervention services to promote and support the healthy development and school readiness of children from birth to age 8. The county began this effort with a set of programs focused on serving families in four targeted geographic areas that have…

This research report examines the Baby TALK model, an innovative early childhood intervention approach used to identify, recruit, and serve young children who are at-risk for developmental delays, mental health needs, and/or school failure, and their families. The report begins with a description of the model. This description is followed by an…

This study examines the efficacy of "ParentCorps" among 4-year-old children (N = 171) enrolled in prekindergarten in schools in a large urban school district. "ParentCorps" includes a series of 13 group sessions for parents and children held at the school during early evening hours and facilitated by teachers and mental health…

This qualitative study explored the extent to which programs in a religiously affiliated agency in Kenya incorporate 12 internationally sanctioned strategies for supporting orphans and vulnerable children in Sub-Saharan Africa (Olson, Knight, & Foster, 2006). The results indicated that all 12 strategies were being employed, though to varying…

Purpose: Early onset of behavioral disorders is predictive of long term adverse outcomes. There are some indicated and selective early prevention programs for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), one of the most common behavioral disorders in childhood and adolescence. The purpose of this paper is to present a universal preschool…

This summary provides highlights from a report that describes potential risks to the healthy development of young children and the extent of coverage of publicly-funded services to meet their early learning, health, and basic needs. The report is the first attempt in Minnesota to describe indicators of early childhood development county by county.…

Starting to be implemented as of the 1960s, early intervention programs are frequently employed at the present time. Researchers develop and implement early intervention programs in various subjects and areas. These programs may be family-based, school-based, community-based, or a combination of them. This study aimed at comparing the early…

Secondary trauma stress, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma are terms rarely found in educational literature. Studies have shown the significant and lasting ramifications of these constructs within the realm of counseling and psychology. Professionals working in educational settings with high risk populations encounter multiple exposures to…

In the past 20 years, many advances (e.g., maternal steroids and surfactant) have changed the course of neonatal medicine. As a result, extremely preterm infants survive medical complications that were previously fatal. Once they are discharged from the neonatal intensive care unit, preterm infants may continue to experience a spectrum of medical…

We report here findings from a community-based multifaceted prevention program which was implemented concomitantly as a universal and indicated intervention. Screening of social competence development was used to select preschool children targeted by the indicated intervention (high risk), and by the universal intervention (moderate and low risk).…

This study is a population-based investigation of children's school readiness with a national sample of low-income children, utilizing data from the Family and Children's Experiences Survey (FACES; 2000-2003). Guided by a developmental ecological framework, we posed 3 research questions: (a) How do children's early school readiness skills in the…