This project partnered researchers, Visiting Teachers, and three networks of home-based educators to engage with three research-informed professional learning modules designed to support educator practice and enhance children's learning. Each module focused on one aspect of developing competencies related to success in beginning schooling…

Educators are committed to understanding one another in their community as they explore their diversity. The home visit unit of study represents one of the earliest examples of "student research" done at the school where these authors teach, which serves children in pre-kindergarten classes through grade eight. A home visit is a field…

This paper describes a home-based early childhood program in operation in the Memphis city school system and presents a rationale for early education and for parent involvement. The program involves educationally deprived 3- and 4-year-olds in eight preschool centers located in Title I schools. A parent or significant caretaker of each child…

This presentation discusses longitudinal results of a home-based program for low SES black and white children whose parents received weekly visits designed to chart children's individualized enrichment when they were from 2 to 5 years of age. The program drew upon school and community resource personnel when appropriate, to provide parents with…

The role of the toy demonstrator in a home-based, mother-involved intervention effort (Verbal Interaction Project) is presented in this handbook for staff members. It is believed that the prerequisites for functioning in the toy demonstrator's role are a sense of responsibility, patience with the children and their mothers, and willingness to be…

The present study compared the relative effectiveness of three home visiting projects whose purpose was to train low income mothers to use commonly available materials and everyday events for the educational stimulation of their preschool children. The home visiting projects varied in terms of expense and professional qualifications of the home…

A study compared the progress of 12 Greek children (ages 8 months to 5 years) with disabilities who received a weekly educational visit from early interventionists for 2 years with that of 12 controls. Results showed significant gains for treated children in overall functioning level and in different domains of development. (Contains references.)…

Progress during the first two years (1967-1968 and 1968-1969) of a three-year home-based, mother-child intervention program called the Verbal Interaction Project is described. The project was planned for the cognitive enrichment of preschoolers 2 to 4 years old, from lower income families. The program utilized specially trained home visitors,…

This paper focuses on parents' play routines as an aspect of home intervention programming and explains the effects of such routines on the imaginative play behaviors of developmentally delayed youngsters. The paper is divided into four main sections. First, in order to understand the potential effects of parent play routines, the contributions of…

This essay discusses methodological and ethical problems in the implementation and evaluation of home-based intervention programs for young children and their families. Part I notes the difficulties in (1) selecting an appropriate research design to evaluate a program (e.g., preventing sample bias), (2) specifying precisely the intervention method…

The verbal and cognitive effects of both a Toy Demonstrator and a similar home visitor who abstained from stimulation techniques were studied in the Verbal Interaction Project. Three groups of children, totalling 54, participated in the study from July 1967 through June 1968. One group received "double intervention" (Toy Demonstrator),…

Fifty-one low-income families, each with a toddler, plus at least one other child under age 5, participated in a 5-year home-based intervention study designed to help mothers become more effective educational change agents. One group received a 9-month treatment specifically designed for the needs and characteristics of the individual families;…

This paper reviews the concept of parent involvement in preschool intervention programs and presents experimental data relevant to the effectiveness of several preschool and home-based teaching programs for economically disadvantaged children. The range of current assumptions about parents is summarized as: (1) parents need to be taught how to be…

This report describes a six-week Homestart pilot project designed to provide Head Start-type services to young children in their homes. The program consisted of three components: (1) home visits, in which Piagetian tasks were introduced to encourage verbal interaction between parent and child; (2) weekly group meetings for the children which…

In 1968 the Demonstration and Research Center for Early Education (DARCEE) initiated a small study to build and utilize mothers' skills (established in an earlier and major study) and to begin to construct and explore the feasibility of a "career ladder" for persons interested in early education. Subjects were 12 Negro preschoolers and their…