Analyzed Chicago Longitudinal Study data to determine correlates of preschool participation. Found that participation was associated with significantly higher levels of school readiness, achievement, and educational attainment, and with lower rates of child maltreatment, juvenile delinquency, special education placement, and grade retention.…

Summarizes the articles in this special issue on child poverty, policy, and welfare reform. Introduces and discusses the four major themes addressed by these articles: (1) poverty and economic policies affecting children; (2) consequences of poverty for child well-being; (3) qualitative research on family life and child poverty; and (4) programs…

This commentary on a previous article that demonstrates three ways of analyzing qualitative interview data (content, cultural models, and narrative analyses), discusses the importance of focusing on cultural models of quality of life in assessing early intervention programs, forging partnerships between families and researchers, and linking…

We examined the service needs of foster families with children who have disabilities. Foster parents in a large Canadian city were asked "What services or supports would be helpful to you?" The responses to this question were edited for clarity and to eliminate redundancies, and sorted into piles of like statements by a group of 15…

This paper focuses on the challenges of helping children after abuse and neglect has occurred by strengthening the web of supports for children and families in foster care. It examines the current state of the foster care system and finds that it is really not a cohesive system but a combination of many overlapping and interacting agencies, all…

The purpose of this study was to validate competencies necessary for effective work in early intervention with infants and toddlers who are deaf or hard of hearing. These were developed and implemented in the context of a graduate professional preparation program in early intervention in deaf education. This interdisciplinary, family-centered…

Even though children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be reliably identified by autism experts at 18 months, and the majority of parents report symptoms before age 2, the average age of diagnosis for children with autism in the United States is 3 to 4 years of age. Early identification is especially vital given the growing amount of…

It is now widely accepted that investments in comprehensive and coordinated early intervention services will generate long-term benefits for children and families. Additional research is needed to continue to improve all aspects of service delivery in early intervention and early childhood special education, with a particular focus on conditions…

The Target Cities Projects coordinate a variety of local services available to substance abusers and their families. As part of these cooperative agreements, Head Start agencies are linked to substance abuse treatment agencies to provide cross-training, cross referral, and, eventually, joint case management of client families. Part of this broader…

This annotated bibliography lists approximately 95 citations on interprofessional, interagency, and family-professional collaboration in delivery of children's mental health services. Section 1, "Interprofessional/Interdisciplinary Collaboration: The Need" examines articles which describe new approaches to providing family-centered service,…

This final report describes the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Home/School Support project, an Oregon project which attempted to decrease stress in parents caring for school-aged children with TBI and to provide support to schools serving students with TBI. During its 3 years of development, the project involved over 50 families of children, ages…

This final report describes the Iowa Deaf-Blind Project, which provided technical assistance on a statewide basis in the form of information dissemination, training, and consultation to local school districts, area education agencies, institutions, and organizations providing early intervention, early identification, education, transition,…

The six articles in this newsletter theme issue focus on three successful infant/family organizations serving families with young children either at risk for a disability or having a disability: Southwest Human Development (Phoenix, Arizona); The Ounce of Prevention Fund (Chicago, Illinois); and New Horizons Center for Children and Families of…

This special issue of the Family Resource Coalition Report presents personal experiences and reflections regarding parent involvement and leadership in family support. Articles in this issue are: (1) "The Vaughn Family Center: It's My Story" (Jorge Lara and Matt Oppenheim); (2) "Asking the Right Questions is Key to Developing Parent…

This report describes a federally funded project designed to meet the needs of culturally diverse children with special health care needs and their families in New York. The goal was to establish a model program that would demonstrate that the quality of life for culturally diverse children with special health needs and their families would be…