Early intervention (EI) providers--who deliver Part C services under the purview of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for children birth-3 years old with/at risk of disabilities--play an important role in promoting the development of young children and their caregivers. Enhancing caregiver capacity to meet the developmental…

While changing demographics reflect an increasingly multicultural and multilingual U.S. population, Latinos continue to experience under-representation and lack of recognition inconsistent for such a growing segment of the U.S. population. Latinos face a myriad of inequities across systems that impact early childhood development and that continue…

Opioid use in pregnancy and the postpartum period increases the vulnerability of the newborn in many ways. No single system can appropriately meet all the needs of this population. Due to the variety of systems that are involved, there are multiple opportunities for gaps in care. Thus, the systems of care must collaborate, communicate, and share…

Good nutrition during the 1,000-day window between pregnancy and 2 years old can give children the opportunity to reach their full potential. Conversely, malnutrition early in life can cause irreversible damage to a child's brain development and physical growth, leading to a lifetime of poor health and lost potential. Each year, malnutrition costs…

In the spring of 2020, the emerging COVID-19 pandemic prompted states across the country to mandate that most early childhood education programs close, leaving families with young children scrambling to adapt to full-time caregiving and leaving educators uncertain of their economic and professional future. For many communities, this hardship was…

For research on emotional development, defining emotions as psychological systems of appraisals, expressions, body reactions, and subjective feelings in all phases of ontogenesis raises tricky methodological issues. How can we measure single emotions when appraisals and feelings cannot be assessed from outside, when expressions do not seem to be…

A large portion of an infant's or toddler's day involves bodily care routines, including diapering. Tuning in to the uniqueness of a child's individuality during diapering by responding with sensitivity, encouragement, and in an unhurried manner, sends a powerful message to the child about his or her body, bodily functions, and crucially, that the…

Early intervention visual impairment services are built on a model that values family. Matrix session planning pulls together parent priorities, family routines, and identified strategies in a way that helps families and early intervention professionals outline a plan that can both highlight long-term goals and focus on what can be done today.…

On August 21, 2017, sky gazers all across North America will experience a total solar eclipse, arguably the most breathtaking of all astronomical phenomena. The August eclipse is an ideal astronomical event to observe with young children because it allows them to observe a powerful and easily accessible astronomical phenomenon. Observing…

The development of young children can be disrupted by repeated stress because stress triggers a response which changes the chemistry of their bodies (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (NSCDC), 2014). Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) is used to describe stressful or traumatic experiences which threaten children's development.…

Program leaders and supervisors have an ethical obligation to actively endeavor (a) to deepen their capacity to create safe and inclusive spaces for reflection and inquiry and (b) to intentionally acknowledge how topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion arise in themselves, their communities, their staff, their supervisees, and their clients.…

There are few sources of national data on the early childhood and school-age workforce. The National Workforce Registry Alliance is creating an important source of current, verified, longitudinal data on the early care and education field. The 2019 dataset analysis focused on the characteristics of infant--toddler educators to highlight the status…

The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) is preparing to undertake the work of reviewing the state early learning standards - Indiana's Early Learning Foundations (the "Foundations"). In anticipation of this work, staff at IDOE have requested support from the Region 8 Comprehensive Center in identifying approaches states have taken in…

The Frank Porter Graham (FPG) Child Development Institute, Early Intervention Training Center for Infants and Toddlers with Visual Impairments and Their Families, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was a national project that developed resources with the goal of building the capacity of colleges and universities to prepare personnel to…

Emergent literacy skills develop from a child's experiences with spoken language in social interactions, written words through storybook reading, and opportunities to interact with print in the environment. These emergent literacy experiences provide a foundation for conventional literacy skills. A congenital visual impairment (that is, blindness…