NICU follow-up (NFU) programs often experience low service utilization rates. Attendance to follow-up appointments is vital for both the health outcomes of the infants and to ensure continued funding for these programs. Occupational therapists should be aware of factors that put individual consumers at higher risk for nonattendance and take steps…

The issue of early childhood trauma is becoming more prominent in early childhood policy discussions, driven by a growing recognition of the potentially devastating impacts of trauma and violence on infants, toddlers, and families. This article provides facts about the impacts of trauma and other adverse early experiences on child health and…

The cultural competence of 13 parenting education programs for Latino families with young children was examined in this study. Based on our analyses, we make several recommendations for improving the cultural competence and effectiveness of parenting education programs for Latino families with young children. Specifically, we recommend the…

Sure Start Scotland is part of a broader action program for children from birth to age three and their families with the objectives of improving children's social and emotional development, health, and ability to learn, as well as strengthening families and communities. This summary report details a "mapping" project to identify services…

The purpose of the Healthy Start Initiative, a national demonstration program, is to reduce infant mortality by 50 percent in 15 communities. At the heart of the initiative is the belief that the community, guided by a consortium of individuals and organizations from many sectors, can best design and implement the services needed by the women and…

This report examines the expansion of Head Start programs to include children from birth to age 3. The report notes that high-quality, comprehensive programs for families and young children have demonstrated their effectiveness in helping families raise healthy, confident, curious children and, by providing support to parents, increasing parents'…

The development of community-based programs to support inexperienced parents through home visits by experienced mothers, who are in turned facilitated by child health and development professionals, has become an increasingly common approach in Europe and the United States. This edited volume presents proceedings from an invitational conference on…

Over the past several years, outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases have drawn greater attention to the problem of low immunization rates in the U.S. In response to this problem, the federal government created the Vaccines for Children program as a foundation for a new national immunization policy to ensure proper and timely immunizations for…

Discusses the development and initial implementation of the "Every Child by Two" project. The project is designed to immunize as many newborn through two-year-old children in the United States as possible against communicable childhood diseases, such as measles, and to create a program to systematically immunize this age group in the…

In the early 1980s, the Ford Foundation launched a grants program called Child Survival/A Fair Start for Children (CS/FS) that addressed issues related to birth and infant health and development among families that were poor and underserved by traditional human services. This book reports on each of seven CS/FS projects, describing the concerns…

"Zero to Three is a single focus bulletin of the National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families providing insight from multiple disciplines on the development of infants, toddlers, and their families. Noting that because the perinatal periodfrom the later stages of pregnancy through the first 6 months of the infants lifeis a period of…

Reviews the experimental literature concerning the effectiveness of prenatal and newborn home visiting programs in improving the lives of children and families, focusing on studies employing randomized trials. Results suggest that home visiting programs have had mixed success, improving some outcomes but not others. (MDM)

Noting that one of the biggest challenges in the United States today is the increasing number of infants and toddlers younger than age 3 who are cared for by someone other than their parents during work hours, this issue of NCEDL Spotlights announces the publication of a book examining out-of-home care for infants and toddlers. The book is an…

Describes a collaborative, multidisciplinary developmental follow-up program for infants and toddlers who have been in out-of-home care. The program builds on the community-based family support model described in the Family to Family Foster Care Reform Initiative. Highlights the children's health and developmental status and program effectiveness.…

This report describes the relationship between comprehensive prenatal care services and healthy babies, and examines the inclusion of social support services with medical care for women at-risk of problem pregnancies and unhealthy babies. The report notes that the United States trails many countries in indicators of maternal and child health. In…