In fiscal year 2004, the Congress appropriated $6.8 billion to serve 919,000 poor children through 1,680 Head Start grantees nationwide. Recent reports of financial improprieties at a number of Head Start programs around the country raised questions about the effectiveness of the oversight provided by the Department of Health and Human Services'…

In the United States, approximately 12% of infants are born preterm and 8% are born low birthweight. Prematurity and low birthweight have been associated with "high risk" pregnancies (poor prenatal care, maternal smoking or drug use, illness or disease) and other factors, such as maternal depression and/or elevated stress hormone levels.…

Personnel (N=115) from 14 professional groups working with young children with disabilities and their families assessed their current and future inservice training needs in the areas of typical/atypical development, family systems/family involvement, assessment, program implementation/evaluation, administrative/team process, professional…

Investigates the consistency of psychiatric, psychological, and discharge diagnoses for a sample of 97 adolescent inpatients at a private psychiatric and substance abuse hospital. Percentage agreement between initial evaluations, psychological evaluations, and the exit evaluation ranged from 61.7 to 81.6%. Encourages specialists to carefully…

Reviews alternative ways to establish goals for early intervention for children with disabilities, based on ecological theory. The ecological foundations of early intervention are discussed and an overview of sampling tactics and dimensions is presented. Recommendations are made for using planned activities for intervention design. (CR)

School counselors have developed effective approaches to reducing prejudice in the crucial early school years. Successful early intervention is based on the premise that hatred and prejudice are tools of the subconscious to ease feelings of inferiority through the illusion of superiority. (SLD)

Describes the implementation of a brief behavioral intervention, based on the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program, by 13 pre-school practitioners with 39 parents. The results point to the role of primary care practitioners in providing services in settings that are easily accessed by parents, thus increasing the availability of support to parents…

This article uses an outcome-driven model within a family-centered, interdisciplinary team philosophy to develop a 10-step framework to help service providers fit assistive technology (AT) services to the needs of infants and toddlers. Criteria for determining appropriate AT interventions are offered, as is the critical information needed for…

Children with Down syndrome and their families who participated in an early intervention program between 1974 and 1977 were interviewed 25 years later. Parents reported challenges such as medical complications, teasing or ostracism, and lack of adequate services and supports as children reached adulthood. Parents also described joys and…

Provides a review of current literature with emphasis on the issues of student empowerment, early intervention strategies, and cultural issues in education which may stimulate solutions for restructuring literacy education in response to the No Child Left Behind legislation of 2001. Notes that reading failure for speakers of nonstandard English…

This article discusses the increased emphasis on providing early intervention services within natural environments and how to maximize natural learning opportunities by using everyday activities that children experience and embedding intervention in daily routines. Guidelines for deciding the frequency of services, changing services, and the level…

This article examines the clinical aspects of etiology-related behaviors in young children with genetic mental retardation syndromes. Discussion of the concept of behavioral phenotype leads to consideration of how interventionists can best provide more focused and more effective interventions for children with different genetic disorders and…

This study examined the strength of evidence from single-subject research underlying the Council for Exceptional Children's Division of early Childhood Recommended Practices. A review of 184 articles (1990- 1998) found the literature provided positive, and in some cases very strong, evidence for the effectiveness of practices from the…

Examines effectiveness of three different reading interventions in reading disabled second and third graders. Compares growth in phonological and orthographic processing and word reading. Finds the most significant mediator of intervention effects was initial differences in phonological and orthographic processing skills. Concludes that synthetic…

Four stutterers, aged 3-5, received treatment based on parent-administered, operant verbal stimulation. Data show that the intervention, coupled with a programed maintenance schedule, reduced stuttering and accompanied increases in syllable output. Findings suggest that cases of early stuttering might be managed effectively by parents, with…