Family-centered care represents a collaborative partnership between caregivers and service providers, and is associated with positive caregiver and child outcomes. This approach may be especially important for caregivers with early concerns about autism, as service providers are often the gateway to appropriately-specialized intervention.…

A must for home visiting programs, the updated second edition of the LSP is the most efficient, reliable way to evaluate a parent's life skills: the abilities, behaviors, and attitudes they need to achieve a healthy and satisfying family life. For use with at-risk, low-income pregnant and parenting individuals with children from birth to 5 years…

There is strong evidence that children of mothers with insecure attachment styles have poor outcome trajectories. "Maternal sensitivity" may be the behaviour which links mother and child attachment models. This would, therefore, be a natural target for treatment in attachment interventions. A systematic literature review was conducted to…

Developmental science demonstrates that younger children (ages 4 to 8) are capable of making meaning of their contexts and the self. Yet, younger children's meaning making is largely absent from intervention and implementation research on early childhood policies. This absence is notable given the rise in investment in early childhood policies and…

This study presents the descriptive data of a family context assessment carried out using a new instrument which includes a wide range of variables identified in recent scientific literature as influencing children's psychological development. Participants were 772 families with children aged between 7 and 11. The results reveal variability…

Maternal and infant health indicators are often used to gauge the overall health of a nation. Understanding the current state of maternal and infant well-being, health behaviors, and social determinants of health across several domains offers the opportunity to kindle ideas for interventions to improve well-being. This report features indicators…

This study aimed to better understand predictors of evidence-based assessment practices for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Nationwide, 402 school psychologists were surveyed for their knowledge of and training and experience with ASD on assessment practices, including reported areas of training needs. The majority of school psychologists reported…

The leadership team of the national Quality Improvement Center on early Childhood ventured into the frontiers of deep change in social systems by funding four research projects. The purpose of the research projects was to learn about implementing a protective factors approach with the goal of reducing the likelihood of child abuse and neglect. In…

The teaching of imitation skills is often the first step in interventions for young learners with intellectual disabilities. The main goal of this study was to determine the smallest detectable difference (SDD) at 95% confidence of the Preschool Imitation and Praxis Scale (PIPS) in preschoolers with intellectual disabilities. Two raters…

Objective: To ascertain infant feeding practices and to explore the feasibility of an in-home feeding intervention with Native American Indian (NAI) mothers in six Native American communities in the United States (US). Design: Qualitative focus group study. Setting: Six Native American communities in the Midwest region of the United States.…

Literature exploring the experiences of gifted individuals has often focused on asynchronous development, particularly during childhood and adolescence. Also discussed in the literature are the unique social, emotional, and behavioral characteristics associated with giftedness. However, there is still an unclear picture concerning the implications…

Background: Prematurity and perinatal insults lead to increased developmental vulnerability. The home-based Infant Behavioral Assessment and Intervention Program (IBAIP) was designed to improve development of preterm infants. In a multicenter randomized controlled trial the effect of IBAIP on mother-infant interaction was studied as a secondary…

In the behavioral literature, self-echoic behavior has been hypothesized to play an important role in, for example, emergent conditional discriminations (e.g., Lowenkron, 1991), emergent verbal operants (Horne & Lowe, 1996), and problem solving (Skinner, 1957). Although early behavioral intervention programs for children with autism emphasize the…

This study explored the importance of using relevant measures when evaluating the effectiveness of early childhood interventions. Data from the federally-funded evaluation of the Comprehensive Child Development Program were used to examine whether the behavior measure, the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), was an appropriate tool for the diverse…

Hip-hop culture can be used as a conduit to enhanced cultural competence and practice skills through the individual and community empowerment framework. This framework is introduced as a tool for direct practice that allows social workers to understand the competing messages within hip-hop culture and how they may impact youths by promoting or…