In the "Just Do It, Jr." program, 81 at-risk fifth-grade students in rural Nevada attended life skills training sessions, then taught self-esteem concepts to second graders. The fifth graders averaged a 16% improvement on self-observed school attitudes and self-esteem, and the second graders thought the programs were well taught. (TD)

This article discusses attachment problems and disorders among infants and young children, the consequences of attachment problems in child development, and factors leading to attachment problems. It provides the current status of diagnostic criteria and classification systems means of assessment and available empirically supported interventions.…

This commentary on a previous article that demonstrates three ways of analyzing qualitative interview data (content, cultural models, and narrative analyses), discusses the importance of focusing on cultural models of quality of life in assessing early intervention programs, forging partnerships between families and researchers, and linking…

Research findings: Growth across 6 months to 8 years of age, assessed at seven time points, for daily living and cognitive skills was compared for term (n = 122), very low birth weight (VLBW) children of low (n = 114) and high (n = 73) medical risk and lower socioeconomic status (SES). Dramatic declines in daily living skills were found for all…

There is growing evidence of an association between physical illness and problem behavior in children with developmental disabilities. Such behavior can compromise school performance. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate, using a group design, the effectiveness of medical intervention alone (N = 11) versus behavioral plus…

The author investigated age- and gender-related changes in self-evaluative judgments of 87 children followed from preschool through 2nd grade. Focusing on cognitive, physical, and peer competence assessed by the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance (PSPCSA; S. Harter & R. Pike, 1984), the author tested PSPCSA subscale…

The purpose of this study was to validate competencies necessary for effective work in early intervention with infants and toddlers who are deaf or hard of hearing. These were developed and implemented in the context of a graduate professional preparation program in early intervention in deaf education. This interdisciplinary, family-centered…

This study investigated parents' and teachers' expectations of Auditory-Verbal therapy and the child's language development. Data were collected by questionnaires that were distributed to parents and teachers at three early intervention centers. Twenty matching questionnaires were completed and returned. The results of this study showed that the…

Three professional development approaches have shown promise in raising the competency level of early childhood professionals in rural areas. Provider registry systems gather information that provides a foundation for further professional development initiatives and systemic development. Statewide professional development systems designed to serve…

Even though children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be reliably identified by autism experts at 18 months, and the majority of parents report symptoms before age 2, the average age of diagnosis for children with autism in the United States is 3 to 4 years of age. Early identification is especially vital given the growing amount of…

The psychometric properties of the Ages & Stages Questionnaires (ASQ) (Bricker & Squires, 1999) used in a French-Canadian preschool population were compared with psychometric data derived from U.S. normative studies. The ASQ was translated into French (Bonin, Robaey, Vandaele, Bastin, & Lacroix, 2000) and used in four early childhood…

The National Child Count of Children and Youth who are Deaf-Blind is the first and longest running registry and knowledge base of children who are deaf-blind in the world. Begun in 1986 on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education (Baldwin, 1993), it represents a thirty plus year collaborative effort between the National Consortium on…

This final report describes activities and accomplishments of the Colorado Services to Children with Deafblindness program, a 3-year federally funded technical assistance project concerned with early childhood education, training of personnel and families, transition services from school to adult services, parent support, and dissemination of…

Noting the scientifically substantiated link between children's early family experience and their later intellectual growth, this book describes a longitudinal study of the circumstances of early language learning and the central role of home and family in the emergence of language and word learning. The vocabularies of 42 children were studied…

This final report describes the Iowa Deaf-Blind Project, which provided technical assistance on a statewide basis in the form of information dissemination, training, and consultation to local school districts, area education agencies, institutions, and organizations providing early intervention, early identification, education, transition,…