When low-income women become parents for the first time, they often need support, education and encouragement to be the best parent they can be. They truly want to succeed. Desire, unfortunately, is not enough. These women are usually most open to health care assistance, parenting tools, and a therapeutic relationship with a community health…

Play is a major component of early intervention for infants and toddlers with special needs. Many of these children are from low-income families with limited resources. The authors investigate the attitudes, practices, and concerns of early-intervention providers (professionals whose services support young children with developmental disabilities…

This study investigated effects of Home Instruction of Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), a paraprofessional home visiting program, on parents and children. The program site served low-income, Spanish-speaking families. On average, mothers were 31 years old (SD = 4.78) and children were 3 or 4 years old (M = 3.92, SD = 0.92). Participants (n…

This report presents findings from the Massachusetts Family Child Care study, a two-year evaluation designed to examine the impacts on providers and children of an early childhood education program aimed at improving the development and learning opportunities in the care settings and, as a consequence, the outcomes for children in care. The early…

This report presents findings from the Massachusetts Family Child Care study, a two-year evaluation of the impacts of an early childhood education program on providers and children in family child care. The program--"LearningGames"--is designed to train caregivers to stimulate children's cognitive, language, and social-emotional…

The role of the toy demonstrator in a home-based, mother-involved intervention effort (Verbal Interaction Project) is presented in this handbook for staff members. It is believed that the prerequisites for functioning in the toy demonstrator's role are a sense of responsibility, patience with the children and their mothers, and willingness to be…

The effectiveness of a home-based enrichment program was assessed using 30 matched pairs of experimental and control group 5-year-olds from poor black South African families. The enrichment provided experimental families with educational materials thought suitable for the promotion of school readiness. Although results indicated some positive…

The present study compared the relative effectiveness of three home visiting projects whose purpose was to train low income mothers to use commonly available materials and everyday events for the educational stimulation of their preschool children. The home visiting projects varied in terms of expense and professional qualifications of the home…

Noting that families in home visiting early intervention programs receive only about half the number of intended visits, this research used quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate how personality and other factors affect the mother-home visitor relationship and thereby, influence home visit intensity. Participating in the study were 5…

Paraprofessionals provided informal social support to 92 low-income parents during pregnancy and for a year afterward. Mother-infant interaction was better at four months in the home-visited families than in controls, especially with teen and Hispanic mothers. Positive and irritable or fearful mothers appeared to benefit more than passive or…

Progress during the first two years (1967-1968 and 1968-1969) of a three-year home-based, mother-child intervention program called the Verbal Interaction Project is described. The project was planned for the cognitive enrichment of preschoolers 2 to 4 years old, from lower income families. The program utilized specially trained home visitors,…

This paper focuses on parents' play routines as an aspect of home intervention programming and explains the effects of such routines on the imaginative play behaviors of developmentally delayed youngsters. The paper is divided into four main sections. First, in order to understand the potential effects of parent play routines, the contributions of…

Fifty-one low-income families, each with a toddler, plus at least one other child under age 5, participated in a 5-year home-based intervention study designed to help mothers become more effective educational change agents. One group received a 9-month treatment specifically designed for the needs and characteristics of the individual families;…

Evaluates a two-year intervention program for low income families in which a toy demonstrator modeled verbal interactions with children ages two to four. Contrary to earlier results, finds no detectable program effects in children's IQ, achievement, or school adjustment three years post-program. Considers problems of ensuring that samples are…

Home visitors were used to teach mothers to be more effective educational change agents in their own homes. The one-hour visits continued over 30 weeks. The initial sample consisted of 72 Negro mothers and their first grade children. All children has had 8-week summer Head Start. Five treatment groups were (1) Mother-Involved Cognitive home…