Families are often taken by complete surprise when they learn that they have or will have a child with special healthcare needs. Such occurrences, for the most part, are neither preventable nor expected. Immediately, the family is faced with major changes in their lives, their finances, and the long-term expectations of their child. In this…

The author has written this latest volume to help parents and educators understand children's cognitive development and provide suggestions on how to nurture children to their full potential. A companion to "The Adolescent Brain", this rich resource: (1) Examines the neurobiology of childhood, explaining the body/brain systems that develop during…

Many low-income families struggle with stable housing and frequently have to move due to foreclosures, rent increases, or other financial setbacks. Children in these families can experience lasting negative effects, especially those who are young and still developing basic learning and social skills. A joint NRC-IOM committee held a workshop in…

Interactive Literacy Activities, or ILAs, broadly refer to activities that facilitate interaction between adults and children for the purpose of promoting literacy and language development. It is essential to make ILAs developmentally and culturally appropriate for children and to use an approach that integrates various activities in order to…

Great Expectation and New Beginnings is a prenatal family support program run by the Family, Infant, and Preschool Program (FIPP) in North Carolina. FIPP has developed an evidence-based integrated framework of early childhood intervention and family support that includes three primary components: providing intervention in everyday family…

Piecewise latent trajectory models for longitudinal data are useful in a wide variety of situations, such as when a simple model is needed to describe nonlinear change, or when the purpose of the analysis is to evaluate hypotheses about change occurring during a particular period of time within a model for a longer overall time frame, such as…

The twenty-first century family faces many demographic changes. Despite this, the importance of intergenerational relationships remains. This article initially reviews the literature surrounding the role that grandparents play in their children's families, highlighting a growing body of research demonstrating the important support role that…

The increasing prevalence of mental illness among parents always represents a stressor affecting the biopsychosocial development of a child. However, due to varying inherent resilience factors, not all children are affected to the same extent. The presence of evidence-based resilience factors is able to minimise or prevent the adverse effects…

A contemporary view of motor development considers environmental influences as critical factors in optimal growth and behavior, with the home being the primary agent. The intent of this communication is to introduce the "Affordances in the Home Environment for Motor Development Self-Report" ("AHEMD-SR") to early childhood practitioners. The…

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association has established knowledge and skills needed for culturally competent service delivery by speech-language pathologists. Among these are skills needed to demonstrate sensitivity to cultural and linguistic differences. The purpose of this article is to describe a model, VISION, to assist in development…

The Christian family is a deeply rooted theological way of being in the world with others. It is a functional domain from where initial and life-long lessons emerge. In rich ways, it helps foster human identity, development, ethical formation, autonomy, and communal responsibility amid a greater understanding of Christ's actualizing presence in…

Luciano L'Abate, recipient of the Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Applied Research, contributed to applied research through the introduction of the laboratory method in clinical psychology assessment and intervention, leading to the development of the first automated playroom, linking play therapy with research in child…

Different pathways to parenthood exist for lesbians and gay men, including adoption and sperm or egg donation. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health showed few differences in terms of adjustment between adolescents living with opposite-sex couples and those living with same-sex couples. Recommendations for clinical work…

The prevalence of child abuse and neglect is an international concern that justifies the existence of child protection systems. An important first principle for all such statutory child protection systems is to ensure that the system itself does no further harm. It can be argued that there are specific circumstances within which well-meaning…

The aim of this paper is to unpack the implicit ideology underpinning early childhood service delivery for families living with childhood disability. The family as the unit of care is central to the philosophy and practice of early childhood services. However, the practice of family-centred care can be problematic; it is based upon neo-liberal…