By the age of five, there is already a science achievement gap among young children in the United States. Educators have worked to address this gap between upper elementary and middle school children for many years. However, little attention has been placed on preventing the gap by focusing on the youngest learners. This article describes how to…

Using the same approach of family involvement and empowerment that has guided Head Start, Early Head Start offers its services to pregnant women and children, birth to age 3. One of the characteristics that differentiates Early Head Start from traditional Head Start is the mandate to offer full-day, full-year services to infants and toddlers. The…

Describes the growth of Early Head Start (EHS) programs, focusing on one EHS partnership with child care providers in Delaware to serve infants, toddlers, and their families. Includes discussion of partnership strategies that promote quality programming, ways the early care and education coordinator supports child development, strategies for…

Describes Project CREATE (Caregiver Recruitment, Education, and Training Enhancement), designed to improve the quality of community-based child care programs in Delaware, and provided in three 1-credit modules at no cost to participants. Identifies barriers to providing education to infant and toddler caregivers. Presents preliminary evaluation…

The Delaware FIRST Program is designed to meet the needs of handicapped infants and toddlers through trained family day care providers. The program is based on a developmental family systems approach. It strives to provide families with ongoing support by offering mainstreamed family day care or respite care, by developing and/or facilitating an…