There are four common stages in the consultative journey: (1) preparing for the relationship; (2) making the most of the experience; (3) committing to change; and (4) acknowledging separations, endings, and good-byes. Two Early Head Start program leaders recount their own experiences of these stages while working with infant mental health…

SHELLS (Support at Home for Early Language and LiteracieS) is a program designed for families with children from birth to three years of age. It has operated in Australia since 1998. Partnerships are at the heart of SHELLS. Parents know their children, their community, and what is culturally appropriate. Facilitators know the community, have…

Raising a child with disabilities impacts the ability of parents to participate in life situations. This paper describes the development of a new instrument, Life Participation for Parents, to measure outcomes of pediatric therapy on parental participation. Items were reviewed by six occupational therapists with experience in pediatrics and…

Background: Previous research has reported on the effectiveness of the Signposts program for supporting families of children with an intellectual disability and difficult behaviour (Hudson et al., 2003; Hudson, Cameron, & Matthews, 2008). This paper reports on an investigation of the extent to which child characteristics moderate the…

The nation's child protection system (CPS) has historically focused on preventing maltreatment in high-risk families, whose children have already been maltreated. But, as Jane Waldfogel explains, it has also begun developing prevention procedures for children at lower risk--those who are referred to CPS but whose cases do not meet the criteria for…

This volume explores whether the nation's early childhood programs are boosting child development and preparing children for schooling and proposes reforms that would improve the programs. The volume contains contrasting papers on the success of Head Start, Early Head Start, and home-visiting programs and on policies that would improve these three…

Consistent with results of previous needs assessments for urban American Indian and Alaska Native populations, a needs assessment in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area for the Native American Rehabilitation Association Northwest revealed high levels of co-occurring conditions for American Indian and Alaska Native clients, often combining…

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of behavioral parent training (BPT) as adjunct to routine clinical care (RCC). Method: After a first phase of RCC, 94 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) ages 4-12, all referred to a Dutch outpatient mental health clinic, were randomly assigned to 5 months of BPT plus concurrent…

The international literature on parents with intellectual disabilities (ID) has focused on concerns about their ability to parent and strategies to enable them to develop parenting skills. Traditionally, the views and experiences of parents themselves have not been the focus of studies. With this in mind, the authors talked to a cohort of 30…

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the demographic, social and psychological factors associated with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) among a sample of secondary school students (N = 402). Methods: Students completed a questionnaire which examined their level of participation in MVPA and sedentary behaviours…

This essay describes the setting up of early intervention services in Vietnam. From the outset, there was a focus on developing staff training programmes alongside establishing model early intervention programmes to ensure that the work would be sustained at the end of the project funding and spread throughout the country. The success of this work…

The parental role in childcare is explored by drawing on a whole child perspective and eco-systemic theory. Partnership between parents and staff in the formal childcare context is then discussed. A workshop undertaken with staff in a community childcare centre to explore the concept and reality of the parent as primary carer is then outlined,…

The 1970s heralded the beginnings of a major shift in focus within child care social work in the United Kingdom, and the preventive, family support approach that had characterised practice since the 1940s was gradually, but decisively, replaced by a central concern with child abuse. This paper outlines the rise and dominance of child protection…

The Air Force outdoor recreation program evolved from the Army "rest and recreation" areas set up during World War II. During the last decade, financial pressures and eroding support for recreation programs forced a reexamination of the objectives of such programs. Starting with the premise that the Air Force was the main customer and…

Noting that over 90 percent of private child welfare agencies in the United States are church related, this book expands the rather limited professional literature on the distinctive characteristics of a church context for providing social services to children and families. The two parts of the book deal with the foundations of the church's care…