The Strong Beginnings program, initiated by the Save the Children Fund in 1991, supports community-based activities in 20 countries aimed at reconstructing educational systems in developing countries. This report presents the vision of the Strong Beginnings program, describes its components, and describes the continuing challenge to improve access…

Based on experiences gained at the Palo Alto Infant-Toddler Center and the view that quality child care for infants and toddlers depends upon nurturing, long-term connections with their caregivers, other children, and their families, this book presents strategies for interacting with young children that support the developing child as well as the…

This paper discusses preliminary results of a project investigating the phenomenon of mastery motivation with three significant groups: provider, family, and extremely premature infant. Three focus groups to determine the state of early intervention's knowledge and utilization of mastery motivation were conducted in three states. A repeated…

Intended for use with the Creative Curriculum for Early Childhood, this integrated ongoing student assessment toolkit is designed for preschool teachers to help them focus on all aspects of a child's development, thereby giving them a way to ensure that all children in their classes are making progress. The assessment kit uses a strength-based…

This fact sheet offers information on North Dakota's Head Start and Early Head Start programs, which are federally-funded comprehensive child development programs for income-eligible children and their families. The primary target population for these programs is children between the ages of 0 and 5; 5,176 such children and their families received…

Policies and proposals to promote marriage have been in the public eye for several years, driven by concern over the large percentages of U.S. children growing up with only one parent. This brief reviews the research evidence on the effects of family structure on children, as well as key trends in family structure over the last few decades. The…

New research suggests that exceptionally stressful experiences early in life may have long-term consequences for a child's learning, behavior, and both physical and mental health. Some types of "positive stress" in a child's life--overcoming the challenges and frustrations of learning a new, difficult task, for instance--can be beneficial. Severe,…

Recent advances in developmental science can teach us a great deal about the value of specific kinds of human interactions in the earliest years of life for the developing brain architecture. Animal experiments indicate that enriched environments with opportunity for frequent interaction and new experiences can help the animals' brains develop…

The past five years have seen a ground swell in public attention and public policy aimed at increasing the availability of after-school programs for children and young teens during the "risk" hours when safety, supervision and homework are a top concern. Popularly called "after-school," these programs represent a new and growing variation on the…

Research shows that many things affect how well preschool children perform in school, including meeting their physical needs with a healthy diet, exercise and good medical care. Young children also need social and emotional help that will build their confidence, independence and cooperation skills. This booklet highlights needs of babies, toddlers…

Written from a multidisciplinary perspective, this handbook for home visitors provides functional, field test guidance techniques for working with parents and children from birth to 5 years. The guide offers techniques to enhance children's development in conjunction with educating and supporting families. Firsthand account of home visits…

The Enriching a Child's Literacy Environment (ECLE) program was designed to establish a model for teaching parents, teachers, and other care providers how to develop the oral language, thinking abilities and motor skills of young children (ages six months to three years). ECLE trainers instruct the parents or other care providers by first modeling…

Recent research suggests that quality of experience in child care centers and family child care homes in the United States is mediocre. The research literature over the past 20 years indicates how variations in quality of care in center-based and family child care affect children's development. Higher levels of quality across a wide range of child…

An action research project integrated violence intervention and prevention into a child development curriculum through a parenting unit fostering confirmatory methods of struggle management between high school and preschool students. Subjects were 45 second- and third-year child development students, 75 first-year child development students, and…

This final report describes a 3-year project which examined effects of different service delivery structures on the development of toddlers with disabilities who were receiving early intervention within natural group environments. Participants (n=70) were matched across four groups who were receiving either full-time specialized instruction or…