Parental investments in the activities and materials that drive learning are central to young children's school readiness and life success. Little is known, however, about how parents adjust these investments in response to outside pressures, including their children's impending entry into kindergarten. In the present study, we employ two…

Hearts and Minds on Babies (HMB) is an innovative, attachment-based training for Early Head Start (EHS) staff and parents, developed through a collaboration between university-based researchers and clinicians and community-based EHS educators. This article describes HMB, our collaboration, and lessons learned when infusing infant and early…

This article describes an infant and early childhood mental health-informed therapeutic visitation program that offers clinical support, systems-level advocacy, and developmentally appropriate guidance to families navigating the child welfare and family court systems. The program offers treatment, permanency, and placement planning for infants,…

The ParentChild+ Program was created more than 50 years ago and has provided thousands of at-risk families across America with positive outcomes. Originally known as the Mother-Child Home Program and later, Parent-Child Home Program, the model is home visiting, reaching families affected by poverty and societal hardships. This article describes…

Student-teacher relationship (STR) quality during the early school years has important implications for student adjustment and outcomes. Studies with typically developing (TD) children have identified links between parent behaviors and STRs, but these connections remain unexplored for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study…

Purpose: This study evaluated the pathways between developmental language disorder (DLD), psychosocial risk factors, and the development of emotional difficulties from ages 3 to 11 years within the Millennium Cohort Study. Method: A total of 14,494 singletons (49.4% female) from the Millennium Cohort Study were evaluated within this study. Risk of…

The purpose of this research study was to explore the lived experiences of parents of children with disabilities. More specifically, this study aimed to give voice to these parents by encouraging them to be active participants in the research process. The researchers used the Photovoice technique as a way for participants to explore their…

One of the important implications of the rights given to children by Article 12 of UN Convention on the Rights of Children 1989 is the inclusion of children in research on issues related to their lives. However, studies on father involvement are still conducted "for" young children not "with" them and there are no…

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are at a high risk for engaging in self-injurious behavior (SIB). Prognosis is poor when SIB emerges early. Limited research exists on interventions teaching parents how to manage their young child's SIB. This investigation assessed the feasibility of adapting an applied behavior…

Restricted repetitive behaviors (RRB) are one of the core symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Evidence suggests that higher-order RRB (H-RRB) are particularly challenging and can negatively impact family functioning (e.g., insistence on sameness, following idiosyncratic routines). The study examined the effects of a parent-implemented…

Children with Down syndrome (DS) are at higher risk for both delayed expressive language and poor speech intelligibility. The current study utilized the quantitative automated language environment analysis (LENA) to depict mother and child vocalizations and conversational patterns in the home of 43 children with DS, chronologically aged 24-64…

Parenting competences have a major influence on children's development and well-being. The objective of this study was to validate the Parenting Competence Scale for Parents with Young Children (PCS-YC) from a preventive psycho-socio-educative approach. After performing Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis with data collected from a random…

Caregiver speech is not a static collection of utterances, but occurs in "conversational exchanges," in which caregiver and child dynamically influence each other's speech. We investigate (a) whether children and caregivers modulate the prosody of their speech as a function of their interlocutor's speech, and (b) the influence of the…

The youngest children in foster care suffer disproportionately. The Adoption and Safe Families Act (1997) attempted to provide greater safeguards for children, which led courts to push for earlier reunifications between foster children and their biological families. Although no one wants young children to languish in the foster care system, early…

From a Marxian/Vygotskian perspective, learning is social in origin and it happens in the presence of others that are more knowledgeable. Extending this view to the learning of mathematics, such learning also becomes inseparable from the presence of others (people and artefacts). Researchers over decades have studied different interactions to see…