This five-year randomised controlled trial explored the impact of the Lifestart home visiting parenting programme, on parent and child development outcomes. The Lifestart Programme is a universal and structured child-centred programme of information and practical activity for parents of children aged from birth to five years of age. In total, 424…

This study has two objectives: (1) to report the results of a large-scale, longitudinal evaluation of the WITS Programs that included a large sample of elementary school children (n = 1967) from 27 rural schools (including 16 program schools) and (2) to examine and discuss the effects of average developmental trajectories and of heterogeneity in…

Purpose: This study tested whether the Sitting Together and Reaching to Play (START-Play) physical therapy intervention indirectly impacts cognition through changes in perceptual-motor skills in infants with motor delays. Methods: Participants were 50 infants with motor delays randomly assigned to START-Play plus Usual Care Early Intervention…

The World Health Organization-Caregiver Skills Training Program, a parent-mediated early intervention facilitated by non-specialist providers piloted in urban India was evaluated using mixed-methods for feasibility and effects on child and caregiver outcomes. Caregivers (n = 22) of children (2-9 years) with social-communication delays participated…

Although many young children face risk factors for academic failure, most research about family interventions do not focus on at-risk children. For example, although Parents Interacting with Infants Model (i.e. PIWI) and Baby TALK programmes are widely used family interventions, no empirical research has been conducted about PIWI or Baby TALK…

Background: Recent studies indicate that parent education programs that include content to enhance parents' mental states may prove efficacious in improving parenting behavior and child outcomes. Objective: This study presents findings from a national evaluation of the "Active Parenting First Five Years" (FFY) program. This group-based…

Growth monitoring (GM) is integral in child health programming. More than 73% of children under-five years in Mutasa district were missed during routine GM in 2015. We set out to evaluate the GM programme in 20 health facilities within Mutasa, Zimbabwe. A comparative process-outcome evaluation using the Logical Framework approach was used. A desk…

The University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development (OCD) has practiced university-community engagement activities for 30 years. This has included hundreds of specific projects conducted with community partners, all funded by outside grants. Based on our experience, we describe some lessons learned regarding the operation of a…

Natural disasters create immense challenges for young children by exposing them to a high degree of adversity. Interventions designed to build resilience in the aftermath of a natural disaster may help buffer the negative consequences of these adverse experiences. In this article, we report the results of our quasi-experimental evaluations of two…

The purpose of this research was to present an overview of the existing family support resources in Spain for at-risk families. We analysed 64 family support services from 16 agencies belong to 11 regions of Spain. In a second phase, 20 positive parenting programmes were analysed in depth to ascertain the extent to which they met evidence-based…

Objectives: To scope evaluations of Indigenous parenting programs designed to improve child psychosocial outcomes. Methods: Electronic databases, gray literature, Indigenous websites and journals, and reference lists were searched. The search was restricted to high-income countries with a history of colonialism. Results: Sixteen studies describing…

Recent studies show that texting-based interventions can produce educational benefits in children across a range of ages. We study the effects of a text-based program for kindergarten parents, distinguishing a general program from one that adds differentiation and personalization based on the child's developmental level. Children in the…

Quality in early childhood settings has emerged as an important factor in determining whether the potential benefits of educational experiences before kindergarten will be realized. Research demonstrates that in order for such interventions to be beneficial to young children's development, the quality of their educational environments and…

There is a definite need for effective intervention programmes that address the social-emotional, character and healthy development of preschool children. Strong social-emotional skills are necessary for successful transitions to formal schooling and for healthy developmental trajectories. The "Positive Action" ("PA") programme…

This paper describes the development, implementation and preliminary evaluation of the Reaching Educators and Children (REACH) program, a training and coaching intervention designed to increase the capacity of early childhood teachers to support children's social and emotional development. We evaluated REACH with 139 teachers of toddler and…