Background: Progress monitoring is a vital strategy for evaluating skill development of young children receiving disability related services. Few effective progress monitoring tools exist for infants and toddlers, and research is needed to examine feasibility as they become available. Objective: The current study examined the implementation of an…

A large body of research has established that high-quality early care and education (ECE) has benefits for young children's cognitive and social-emotional development that can lead to improved outcomes later in life, especially for children who are economically disadvantaged. Research also shows that disadvantaged children have unequal access to…

Kansas Early Head Start (KEHS) provides comprehensive services following federal Head Start Program Performance Standards for pregnant women and eligible families with children from birth to age 4. KEHS was implemented in 1998 using Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) quality set-aside dollars augmented by a transfer of federal…

Delaware was in the first group of states to receive a federal grant in 2012 to improve early care and education services and increase the number of infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children in high-quality programs. One component of the state's grant is a rigorous validation process for Delaware Stars for Early Success, a voluntary quality…

The effectiveness of three types of in-service training designed to improve early intervention practitioners' abilities to use family-systems intervention practices was evaluated in the study of 473 participants. Participants attended either conference presentations or one of two types of workshops (half day/full day or multi-day), or received one…

What constitutes quality in early childhood settings, and how can it best be measured with today's widely used tools and promising new approaches? Find authoritative answers in this book, a must-have for high-level administrators and policymakers as more and more states adopt early childhood Quality Rating and Improvement Systems. The most…

Presents an overview of research literature on the effectiveness of early intervention programs for handicapped and medically at-risk infants. Describes problems of intervention research and elements common to most programs. Reports that although analysis uncovered flaws, reviewers uniformly encourage further efforts to devise effective…

Studies designed to assess the efficacy of interventions with organically impaired infants in terms of how well the experimental designs used controlled for threats to interval validity were analyzed. The use of methodologically more rigorous designs in evaluation studies is recommended to prevent or ameliorate the adverse effects of…

Four author-contributed papers examine issues in assessing child progress in early childhood special education. D. Bricker and S. Gumerlock present "A Three-Level Strategy" which features analysis of daily or weekly progress, analysis of progress toward long- and short-term objectives, and analysis of progress toward program goals. C.…

The paper maintains that impact evaluation studies of programs serving handicapped infants and preschoolers should be restricted to scientifically defendable investigations. Specific types of impact studies and an evaluation process are suggested. It is suggested that program leaders should focus evaluation activities on the status of project…

The paper reviews the methodology of quantitative documentation of the progress of handicapped, delayed, and at risk infants in early intervention programs. The authors discuss design and analysis issues, concluding that the use of several designs and analytic techniques provides useful exploration of hypotheses in early intervention programs.…

Planning for infant intervention programs is the focus of the booklet. The approach rests on key principles, including family support, interagency cooperation, and individualization of early intervention services. Questions are raised for consideration in six topic areas: (1) planning (structure of planning process); (2) funding (legislative…

Evaluation data are presented for the Open Door infant, toddler, and preschool programs (Las Cruces, New Mexico) for handicapped young children. Effects of intervention are reported in terms of learner gain for each child, mean gains for each child across developmental areas, mean gains for groups within each developmental area, subsequent…

The report describes activities and accomplishments of an infant intervention program for mildly to severely/profoundly handicapped children, with emphasis on the needs of bicultural/bilingual handicapped children and handicapped children from low socioeconomic backgrounds. The program involves a peer training approach to parent counseling and…

The final report documents achievements of an infant stimulation program for mildly to severely/profoundly handicapped children, with special attention given to infants from low socioeconomic areas and bicultural/bilingual handicapped children. Accomplishment reporting touches on the following areas: direct and supplementary services for…