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Although children's contact with involved, committed, nonresidential fathers can improve social, emotional, cognitive, and academic outcomes, fathers have largely been absent from parenting interventions that overlook men's role as a critical parenting partner. This article details research showing that young incarcerated fathers' attitudes about--and communication and responsiveness to--their very young children improved following a brief psychoeducational intervention and describes a second pilot project with child-welfare--involved fathers and families. The projects enrolling high-risk, difficult-to-engage parents yielded promising findings, demonstrating how building interventions that are inclusive of fathers stands to benefit child outcomes.

Discusses efforts to coordinate services (mental health services in particular) for children and families, and reports initial findings of research by the Youth Law Center to identify specific characteristics of effective coordination programs. Sixteen characteristics of effective coordinated service programs have been identified. (SLD)

The article discusses problems that may arise in relation to identification, evaluation, Individualized Education Programs, related services, and due process protection for inmates eligible for special education. Problems include failure to identify and evaluate adequately and issues related to discipline, suspension, and exclusion. (Author/CL)

When children are placed into foster care, they experience separations from their primary attachment figures. Visitations are often arranged to provide ongoing birth parent-child contact. These visitations are complicated, though, because young children typically show a range of confusing behaviors when reunited. Fostering Relationships is a brief intervention designed to enhance visitation for the child, birth parent, and foster parent. We examined the effectiveness of the Fostering Relationships intervention through single subject analyses. We examined whether birth parents followed their child’s lead during visitation sessions significantly more than they did not follow their child’s lead. Six of seven birth parents who received the Fostering Relationships intervention followed their child’s lead significantly more often than not, whereas only one of four of the control parents did so. Results are preliminary, but suggest that Fostering Relationships may be a promising intervention for enhancing visitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The absence of a father figure has been linked to very poor developmental outcomes. The Baby Elmo Program, a parenting and structured visitation program, aims to form and maintain bonds between children and their incarcerated teen fathers. The program is taught and supervised by probation staff in juvenile detention facilities. This intervention is based on building a relationship between the teen and his child, rather than on increasing the teen's abstract parenting knowledge. Because the intervention is conducted in the context of parent-child visits, it fosters hands-on learning and increases the opportunity for contact between these young fathers and their children, a benefit in itself. An evaluation of the program indicated improvements in quality of interactions and communication; this increase in the interactional quality of the relationship increases the likelihood that the father and child will form and maintain a positive relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the 2011 article "Foster Care for Young Children: Why It Must Be Developmentally Informed" by Charles H. Zeanah, Carole Shauffer, and Mary Dozier in which the author discusses her experiences as a foster mother for an infant.