This article reports on a study of practitioners' use of In-the-Picture -- a reflective, observational approach -- when delivering early intervention programmes to young disabled children. To date, In-the-Picture has been used mainly by researchers to study interactions and learning between young children, practitioners and the children's parents…

Research shows relationships fuel early brain development and provide the foundation for lifelong health and success. Yet we also know that parenting a very young child places enormous physical and emotional demands on adults. Some families may not have what they need, or know where to turn for support if they want it, even when it is within reach…

Home visiting is a primary service delivery approach to promote young children's development and support families. Early Intervention professionals are expected to partner with families to create effective learning experiences in the daily context of routine family life. Concerns about early childhood (special) educators' readiness to take on this…

This study examined the rates of special education placement during middle school grades (sixth through eighth) among children who participated in the Linda Ray Intervention Program (LRIP) center-based and home-based learning modalities. The study sample included 113 children in Miami Dade County Public Schools who had gestational cocaine exposure…

Play is a major component of early intervention for infants and toddlers with special needs. Many of these children are from low-income families with limited resources. The authors investigate the attitudes, practices, and concerns of early-intervention providers (professionals whose services support young children with developmental disabilities…

This study investigated effects of Home Instruction of Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), a paraprofessional home visiting program, on parents and children. The program site served low-income, Spanish-speaking families. On average, mothers were 31 years old (SD = 4.78) and children were 3 or 4 years old (M = 3.92, SD = 0.92). Participants (n…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a "pilot participatory evaluation" of Every Child Succeeds (ECS), a well-established home visitation program in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, using Photovoice methodology. Every Child Succeeds serves first-time, at-risk mothers and their infants. Seven ECS mothers participated in the…

The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the implementation process for Parenting Plus, an early intervention program in a rural, western Canadian health district. Parenting Plus, as modeled after Hawaii Healthy Start, provides strength-based paraprofessional home visitations to overburdened parents of newborns. The general inductive…

This paper reports observational data describing the content addressed and the processes employed by early special educators during home visits with children with disabilities (birth to three) and their families. Findings indicated that a model of child-focused intervention was most frequently implemented. Home visits especially tended to focus on…

This paper addresses several major ethical issues faced by early intervention home visitors in their helping relationships with clients: maintaining a client focus, client independence, honesty, confidentiality, limits of intervention, and termination. Examples of home visiting dilemmas from two early intervention programs illustrate the issues. A…

This program evaluation report presents information on Project SKI*HI, a home-based program for infants and young children with hearing impairments and their families. The program's major goals are early identification of hearing-impaired infants and a home program to facilitate child development. A parent advisor makes weekly home visits to each…

This article proposes that combining home visits with service coordination could be an effective method of determining what services are needed by families of young children with disabilities and at the same time providing intervention in the home setting. Competencies needed for this dual position of service coordinator and home visitor are…

The effectiveness of a home-based enrichment program was assessed using 30 matched pairs of experimental and control group 5-year-olds from poor black South African families. The enrichment provided experimental families with educational materials thought suitable for the promotion of school readiness. Although results indicated some positive…

Noting that families in home visiting early intervention programs receive only about half the number of intended visits, this research used quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate how personality and other factors affect the mother-home visitor relationship and thereby, influence home visit intensity. Participating in the study were 5…

Paraprofessionals provided informal social support to 92 low-income parents during pregnancy and for a year afterward. Mother-infant interaction was better at four months in the home-visited families than in controls, especially with teen and Hispanic mothers. Positive and irritable or fearful mothers appeared to benefit more than passive or…