Community-based family support and educational programs provide services to families during pregnancy, infancy, and early childhood that are intended to improve family conditions, parental competence and behavior, and maternal and child health and development. Networks of social service agencies emphasize prevention and maintenance in reaching and…

This article identifies elements of effective collaborative programs and describes existing programs that are designed to enhance collaboration between schools and families of children with disabilities: Transparent School Model (in multiple states), Parent/Mentor Resource Project (Indiana), Parent Mentor Program (Ohio), Mentor Parent Program…

Discusses the importance of parent and family involvement in education, as outlined by the Goals 2000: Educate America Act of 1994, which introduced a new national education objective calling for increased family and parent participation. Examines techniques and initiatives used by teachers and schools to foster parent and family involvement. (MDM)

Emphasizes the critical role of parental input into design and implementation of family involvement programs. Discusses what parents consider meaningful family involvement, which can constitute the foundation for program development. Suggests ways to maintain a parent focus in program decisions. (BAC)

Interviews with nine families and staff of an early intervention program for young children with disabilities found that staff members maintained beliefs about themselves as primary decision makers regarding development and implementation of Individualized Family Service Plans and that families perceived the early intervention program as more…

This article describes the role of family members in early intervention personnel preparation efforts, provides a rationale for family involvement, and offers guidelines and strategies for facilitating the participation of families of special-needs young children in personnel preparation, in ways that model collaborative family-professional…

Assessed the impact of taking a high-quality picture book home from school daily on the at-home reading behaviors of young children and family members from middle and low socioeconomic backgrounds. Findings indicated that the program significantly increased the time children were involved in reading each day, and doubled the number of books read…

Evaluation of the impact on several self-perception, behavioral, and family functioning variables of an Outward Bound school program with a family training component for adolescent status offenders indicated that treatment group subjects had significantly higher scores on all variables compared to controls at four weeks, though many differences…

This keynote address states that early intervention services must consider more than professional analyses in their planning. It describes findings from focus group discussions with Latino families of children with disabilities, emphasizing the need to match early intervention services with parent expectations and goals, and the need for services…

Involving family members can be useful in school health education. Involvement requires planned intervention developed and facilitated by health educators. Professional preparation programs in school health education should provide appropriate learning opportunities for students. The article presents sample activities to help preservice teachers…

Presents a multisystemic approach to adolescent pregnancy, describing primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. The article explains health educators' roles in establishing multisystemic programs in primary prevention environments and describes a multisystemic theoretical model of adolescent pregnancy that utilizes interpersonal, family, and…

Discusses the importance of nurturing alliances between specialists and families within the context of developmental assessments. Five axioms with family stories illustrate how specialists and families can collaborate during assessments to ensure that services include families and promote acquisition of knowledge in natural settings. (Author/CR)

Discusses the growth of the Spanish-speaking population served by the North Central Regional Library System (Washington) and the library's response which has included improving Spanish language collections, encouraging staff to learn Spanish, developing bilingual programs for children and families, improving publicity, and using translators. (LRW)

Outlines a four-phase process for forming therapeutic alliances between speech/language professionals and families. Methods from the family therapy literature are superimposed onto speech-language therapy techniques. Adaptations to meet the needs of young children with communication difficulties and their families are described. Case study dialogs…

Describes a Kellogg Family Collaborative project that involves the University of Montana and four tribal colleges in a family-strengths approach to improving student retention and achievement. States that the project is grounded in social work theory and research that recognize and reinforce family and student resilience through promotion of…