The Center for Children's Initiatives (CCI) champions the right of all children to start life with the best possible foundation of care, health and learning. CCI draws on its experience, expertise, and interactions with families, early childhood professionals and policymakers to shape its vision to expand and improve early learning opportunities,…

Prenatal exposures to neurotoxins and postnatal parenting practices have been shown to independently predict variations in the cognitive development and emotional-behavioral well-being of infants and children. We examined the independent contributions of prenatal cigarette exposure and infant learning stimulation, as well as their…

High rates of nonmarital fertility and divorce mean that many fathers do not live with some or all of their children. Using the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, this research compares socioeconomic and family characteristics among men with only coresidential children (n = 762), with both coresidential and nonresidential children (n = 107),…

Background: Despite the well-replicated relationship between the home literacy environment and expressive vocabulary, few studies have examined the extent to which the home literacy environment is associated with the development of early vocabulary ability in the context of genetic influences. This study examined the influence of the home literacy…

The efficacy of the paraprofessional-delivered Family Spirit home-visiting intervention for young American Indian mothers on maternal knowledge and infant behavior outcomes is supported. Participating mothers showed greater knowledge gains compared to non-participating mothers.

The purpose of this study was to explore one South Korean mother's literacy practices after she had migrated to Canada for the purpose of overseeing her children's education. Using a case study method, we focused on language, media, domains, and purposes of literacy practices in Korea and Canada. Data were obtained through two semi-structured…

The research presented in this dissertation utilized both quantitative and qualitative strategies to examine the impact that teacher participation in a targeted home visitation program had on their attitudes, practices, and parent participation within their classrooms. One hundred elementary school teachers were randomly assigned to the treatment…

As part of a comprehensive system of support for families with young children, home visiting programs help to ensure that families facing obstacles--such as those caused by stress, language barriers, geographic and social isolation, and poverty--receive the support they need to nurture their child's healthy development. Efforts to support home…

The Home Visiting Coalition represents more than 75 organizations working together to articulate the effectiveness of home visiting to a range of policymakers and stakeholders in the early childhood field. Despite varying program goals and service delivery strategies, the Coalition participants share a commitment to expanding access to…

This article reports on a pilot study undertaken in order to explore the impact of a home-based parenting intervention (Parents Plus), on parents and families. Parents Plus is part of a Welsh Early Years strategy called Flying Start and aims to promote positive parent-child interactions. This article explores the medium-term to long-term impact of…

Much is known about how to provide safe environments for preschool children (3-5 years-of-age); however, many preschool children still experience preventable injuries--particularly children living in poverty. This study examined the use of an assessment tool used to identify children at risk for unintended injury in two large, federally funded…

Multilingualism is an international fact of life and increasing in the United States. Multilingual families are exceedingly diverse, and policies relevant to them should take this into account. The quantity and quality of a child's exposure to responsive conversation spoken by fluent adults predicts both monolingual and multilingual language and…

The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) is the nation's oldest and largest membership-based child welfare organization committed to engaging people everywhere in promoting the well-being of children, youth, and their families and protecting every child from harm. By publishing a diverse range of views on a wide array of topics, "Children's…

The purpose of this study is to confirm the working hypothesis on two major models of functioning decline and two corresponding models of rehabilitation program in an older population through detailed interviews with the persons who have functioning declines and on-the-spot observations of key activities on home visits. A total of 542…

Home visiting programs for at-risk mothers and their infants have proliferated nationally in recent years, yet experimental studies of home visiting have yielded mixed findings. One promising strategy for explicating the effects of early home visiting is to examine moderators of program impacts. This study assessed the roles of maternal depression…