This program evaluation focused on one year of Bridges to Tomorrow, a multi-year initiative designed by Metro United Way to better prepare at-risk children for academic success upon entering kindergarten. Bridges to Tomorrow provided three child care centers operating in at-risk neighborhoods with interventions that included a structured…

Early childhood educators working within a Response to Intervention (RTI) framework are concerned with monitoring children's progress to make appropriate adjustments to their teaching to promote language and literacy development. A curriculum-based approach can be effective in helping teachers to maximize the quality of universal instruction for…

Research Findings: The current study's main aim was to implement a multifocused, community-based intervention for preventing conduct problems in preschool children. Our assumption was that the same intervention program could be delivered concomitantly as a universal prevention program for all children as well as an indicated prevention program for…

This study investigated the relations among preschool teachers' behavior management, children's task orientation, and children's emergent literacy and language development, as well as the extent to which task orientation moderated the relation between teachers' behavior management and children's emergent literacy and language development.…

Preschoolers with developmental delay (DD) are at risk for poor fundamental movement skills (FMS), but a paucity of early FMS interventions exist. The purpose of this review was to critically appraise the existing interventions to establish direction for future trials targeting preschoolers with DD. A total of 11 studies met the inclusion…

Background: Obesity is a major concern among American Indians and Hispanics. The Child Health Initiative for Lifelong Eating and Exercise (CHILE) is an evidence-based intervention to prevent obesity in children enrolled in 16 Head Start (HS) Centers in rural communities. The design and implementation of CHILE are described. Methods: CHILE uses a…

Researchers have suggested that children who are interested in literacy activities and voluntarily engage in them are likely to become better readers than children with less literacy interest. Literacy interest, along with engaging literacy activities and responsive teaching, are important components in children's early literacy experiences. This…

Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts was created to provide research-based, high quality pre-kindergarten opportunities to at-risk children across the commonwealth by leveraging the existing early education services in schools, Keystone STARS child care programs, Head Start, and licensed nursery schools. The standards are high and the accountability…

The Oklahoma Early Childhood Program uses public and private funds to enhance and expand high quality early care and education opportunities for children birth through age 3. The George Kaiser Family Foundation initiated the pilot in 2006 by matching state general revenue with private donations. Since that time, other private funders and providers…

More than 20 percent of children (ages 2-17) in the United States have witnessed and/or been victims of multiple forms of violence. Children from birth through age 5 are more likely to experience maltreatment and neglect than other age groups. Violence and trauma (including neglect), whether in the home or the community, have lasting effects on…

One approach to halting the childhood obesity epidemic has been the modification of foods available to children during the school day. In recent years there has been an increased focus on obesity prevention efforts among children ages birth to 5 and the role of child care settings in prevention efforts. Head Start serves as an important venue for…

A screening instrument used to identify young children at risk for behavioral and emotional difficulties, the Behavioral and Emotional Screening System Teacher Rating Scale-Preschool was examined. The Rasch Rating Scale Method was used to provide additional information about psychometric properties of items, respondents, and the response scale.…

Research Findings: This study examined relations between contextual risk, maternal negative emotionality, and preschool teacher reports of the negative emotion dysregulation of children from economically disadvantaged families. Contextual risk was represented by cumulative indexes of family and neighborhood adversity. The results showed a direct…

The 2020 Census risks undercounting thousands of young Colorado children, depriving communities of federal funding and political representation for the next decade. Children under age 5 are more likely to be missed by the census than any other age group, with children of color, non-English speakers, and kids living in high poverty communities at…

The present study examines two childhood markers of self-regulation, ego control and ego resiliency, as promotive factors for the development of global adjustment and as risk factors for the development of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in a high-risk sample. Teachers and observers rated ego control and ego resiliency when…