What experiences and knowledge acquired during the first five years of life will enable children to take full advantage of a formal education system during their growing years? The Conference on Early Childhood Intervention and Research examined available data within the theme "Programming Parents to Program Children." Topics and speakers for the five presentations include: (1) The family as an educational change agent-Earl Schaefer; (2) Environmental changes need for optimal child development-Burton White; (3) Contingency contracting with parents-Carl Haywood; (4) Procedures for the development of conceptual and thinking skills in children-Carl Bereiter; (5) The conference in perspective: New directions-Carl Haywood. Brief biographical summaries citing relevant research and field work involving each of the five panelist-psychologists are given. The conference proceedings have been edited to preserve an informal narrative style. Discussion between panelists is reported along with questions from the audience. Final comments by Carl Haywood summarize and attempt to link individual presentations. References are given. (WY)