Early Head Start, a federal program begun in 1995 for low-income pregnant women and families with infants and toddlers, was evaluated through a randomized trial of 3,001 families in 17 programs. Interviews with primary caregivers, child assessments, and observations of parent-child interactions were completed when children were 3 years old.…

Hypothesizes that the amount of verbal interaction with caregivers would be a salient index of center quality, in that it would be a particularly important determinant of language skill. Three sets of measures were used to assess quality of the day care environment: children's language development, family background, and home…