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The early care and education field lacks an evidence base of effective programs to support caregiving quality among family, friend, and neighbor, or unlicensed, caregivers. This article presents the results of a qualitative evaluation of a program implemented with 20 primarily low-income English- and Spanish-speaking grandparents providing childcare for infants and toddlers. Our findings demonstrate the perceived impact of the program, the correspondence with outcomes in support of children's social and emotional development, and the program's feasibility for use with this population. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)

Examined attachment relationships of toddlers at 26 months to their child caregivers. Developed a scale describing safe haven and secure base functions of attachment relationships in child care. Found that this Safe and Secure Scale related to proximal indicators of child-care quality, and was a stronger measure than the child-caregiver Q-security score based on all items. Found that child-mother and child-caregiver security were significantly related. (Author/KB)

Identified predictors of outcomes for 30-month-olds with developmental delays or biomedical risk factors in child care. Found that after accounting for selection effects, child characteristics at 12 months, and home caregiving quality, no child-care variables predicted development or attachment security. Older entry age predicted greater behavioral organization during testing. Home caregiving quality predicted mental development, behavioral organization, and secure attachment. (Author/KB)

A study trained four parent-child advocates serving homeless parents and children (ages birth-3) in providing one-on-one early intervention to facilitate healthy parent-child interactions. After training, all advocates increased their use of positive, contingent, and instructive feedback and mothers became more contingent, social-emotional growth fostering and stimulating in their parent-child interactions. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

This response to Mahoney et al. (EC 623 392) agrees that parent education should be an important component of early intervention programs and proposes that parent education be included in a relationship-focused early-intervention model. This model is illustrated, explained, and compared with the previous child-focused model and the current family-centered model. (DB)

A study involving 166 infants with disabilities found that mothers' employment plans and child-care decisions were affected by their children's special needs. Children with Down syndrome compared with those with other developmental delays entered child care earlier, were more likely to be in centers, and received lower quality care. (CR)

Compared employment patterns and child-care characteristics of mothers and special-needs infants with those of mothers and typically-developing infants. Compared to the latter group, fewer of the mothers with special-needs children had reentered the work force by one year, and fewer of their infants began child care early. The groups did not differ on observed quality of care. (JS)

Literature is reviewed on the effects of genetic and environmental contributions to children's intellectual functioning and the effects of preventive intervention on intellectual outcomes for high-risk children. Longitudinal case studies of two socioeconomically disadvantaged mothers with cognitive deficits are examined, along with interventions to enhance the child's learning environment. (Author/SW)

The study revealed that the frequency and duration of positive caregiver behaviors significantly increased as a result of a home-based program to improve infant-caregiver interaction. (Author/CL)

We conducted a community-based, randomized control trial with intent-to-treat analyses of Promoting First Relationships (PFR) to improve parenting and toddler outcomes for toddlers in state dependency. Toddlers (10–24 months; N = 210) with a recent placement disruption were randomized to 10-week PFR or a comparison condition. Community agency providers were trained to use PFR in the intervention for caregivers. From baseline to postintervention, observational ratings of caregiver sensitivity improved more in the PFR condition than in the comparison condition, with an effect size for the difference in adjusted means postintervention of d = .41. Caregiver understanding of toddlers’ social emotional needs and caregiver reports of child competence also differed by intervention condition postintervention (d = .36 and d = .42) with caregivers in the PFR condition reporting more understanding of toddlers and child competence. Models of PFR effects on within-individual change were significant for caregiver sensitivity and understanding of toddlers. At the 6-month follow-up, only 61% of original sample dyads were still intact and there were no significant differences on caregiver or child outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Examines the impact of the quality of high risk mother's behavior while teaching children about emotional, social and cognitive behavior in the first grade. Association between social and economic aspect of early environment to school adaptation; Demographic characteristics on child and maternal items; Effect of early environment on adaptational classroom behavior.

Fourteen handicapped infants and their caregivers were pretested using an observational schedule designed to assess caregiver-infant interaction. Observers coded the frequency and duration of initiating and responding behaviors of both the caregiver and the infant, and also rated those behaviors as either positive or negative. Observers also coded those caregiver behaviors that were "controlling." The infant-caregiver pairs were stratified by infant age (0-12 months and 13-18 months) and randomly assigned to either a treatment group or a control group. The treatment group received a home-based intervention program designed to improve the quality of interaction between the infant and the caregiver. The control group received no intervention. After the intervention phase, the two groups were post-tested using the same observational schedule. Data from the pretests and post-tests were compared using analysis of variance to determine the effectiveness of the intervention program. This comparison revealed that the frequency and duration of positive caregiver behaviors significantly increased as a result of treatment. Duration of controlling caregiver behaviors significantly decreased as a result of treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Though cross-sectional studies have yielded important information regarding the trajectory of psychopathology in middle childhood and adolescence in Down syndrome, there has been little exploration of maladaptive behaviour in the earliest years of development. In this study, we explore the emergence of maladaptive behaviour in young children with Down syndrome (n=24) and a mental age-matched comparison group (n=33) of young children with developmental disabilities of mixed etiologies. Behavioural data (Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Infant Temperament Questionnaire, Achenbach's Child Behaviour Checklist) were collected for children in each group at 12 months, 30 months, and 45 months. Findings from this study suggest that the onset of internalising behaviour difficulties in young children with Down syndrome may emerge later in early development than in children with developmental disabilities of mixed/nonspecific etiologies. In addition, temperament at Time I appeared to be a much stronger predictor of maladaptive behaviour outcomes at Time 3 in the mixed comparison group than in the Down syndrome group. Implications of this trajectory of the early development of maladaptive behaviour in Down syndrome for intervention for young children with Down syndrome are discussed.