Brutal cold and relentless winter storms. That is how many of us across the country have experienced the winter of 2014. Many would agree that our harsh weather patterns are unusual. The media have even described this winter the coldest in the century! The century that is only 14 years old, and therein lies perspective.
My local newspaper, the Hartford Courant, is celebrating 250 years of continuously publishing the news by providing periodic retrospectives of its history. As one who loves to learn from history, I find these stories fascinating. For example, this winter the paper reviewed winter storms and temperatures in the Northeast United States since the 1600s when Connecticut was first settled (http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/courant-250/hc-250-snowstorms-blizzard-w). The story presents many instances and examples of harsh winter temperatures, snow storms, and snow accumulations that occurred right up until this new century. And that puts the winter of 2014 in perspective!
As the editor of Infants & Young Children (IYC) over the past 5 years, my perspective has been one of privilege and gratitude. I have been in the field of early childhood intervention since 1976 when I became a preschool public school teacher in what was then considered a relatively new field of service. It is no surprise that I feel privileged to be editing a journal in the field I love. I also feel so grateful to the editorial board and authors who contribute to this field through the articles submitted and published in IYC.
My role as an editor has been that of a steward of the journal and the work we publish. As such, I have been able to work with an exemplary editorial board that has helped refine submitted manuscripts into scholarly contributions to the field. By doing so, our mission at IYC has been articulated as one that helps authors improve the field of early childhood intervention through the publication of articles that are thoughtful, applicable, and understandable to our readers.
Back in the 1950s when I was born, Noam Chomsky developed the concepts of deep and surface structure when describing the meaning of words (Chomsky, 1957). These terms describe transformational grammar and how sentences are formed: Deep structure being the underlying meaning or conceptual frame for the surface structure, which is how words are ordered and used in a sentence. These terms have been adapted by many for situations other than syntax and linguistics. For example, deep structure can be an appropriate descriptor of underlying and deep meaning versus the surface structure, which can be the most visible and simplistic portrayal of a concept.
Over the past 5 years, I have tried my best to assist authors to find the deep structure of their work so that their manuscripts will not only be cited by other scholars, but also put into practice with infants and young children and their families. I thank the authors who have had to submit many revisions of their manuscripts in order to reach the deep structure of the message they were trying to convey.
In this day of instant gratification and a growing emphasis on the quantity of publications, we at IYC are more concerned with the meaning of the research or practice contained in a manuscript. Our intent has been to protect and improve the integrity of the field of early childhood intervention through the acceptance and publication of manuscripts that will have application to improve developmental and behavioral outcomes for infants and young children and their families.
I am pleased to announce that I will continue as editor of IYC for another 5-year term. I thank our publisher at Lippincott Williams & Wilkins for giving me privilege to continue to steward IYC. Suffice to say with a President who is intent on increasing public funding for early childhood programs, the integrity of our field is more important than ever, as are improved outcomes for infants, young children, and their families. I look forward to working with others who share my passion!
CURRENT ISSUE
Our first two articles delved deeply into the validity of the assessment and screening process. Both addressed the critical question of how to ensure that the results of assessment/screening tools are accurate across informants and settings. Elisa S. Shernoff, Carri Hill, Barbara Danis, Bennett L. Leventhal, and Lauren S. Wakschlag provide data on a comprehensive system to integrate and synthesize assessment results for young children. The authors' work was based on the premise that multiple perspectives and assessments of a child's behaviors in familiar settings increase the accuracy of clinical and educational decision making. Their model, the Integrative Consensus Method, gathers information from various informants, including parents. To illustrate the use of the model, data from a sample of 295 low-income 3- to 5-year old children with possible disruptive behavior were presented. Information was gathered on these children using clinical assessments, as well as both parent and teacher reports. The results from this study support the use of this more comprehensive method for identifying young children with disruptive behaviors as a recommended practice in assessment.
Our next article by Marianne C. San Antonio, Ada M. Fenick, Veronika Shabanova, John M. Leventhal, and Carol C. Weitzman examined the validity of a screening questionnaire administered in a nonstandardized setting: the waiting room of pediatric practices. The Ages & Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) was given to an underserved population of 131 English- or Spanish-speaking parents of 18- to 30-month children. The results from the screen administration in the waiting room were compared with those of administration of the screen under a standardized condition. No statistically significant differences were found between the two settings, suggesting that the pediatric waiting room setting can be an appropriate setting in which to administer the ASQ.
Our next two articles provide information specific to interventions implemented with young children and families. The first of these by Ane-Marthe Solheim Skar, Lorraine Sherr, Claudine Clucas, and Stephen von Tetzchner provides an overview of an evaluation of the International Child Development Program (ICDP) as implemented in Mozambique, which is one of the poorest countries in the world. The intervention consisted of 10 group classes, followed by 6 weekly home visits. The intervention was culturally sensitive, specific to the family's needs, and focused on building competence. A comparison group was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the ICDP with 75 families. The intervention proved effective at enhancing parenting skills and increasing family self-efficacy, health, and quality of life. It also decreased mental health difficulties in the parents and decreased conduct problems in children. The authors provide recommendations for further research on the model.
Next, Lori A. Bass and Eunice V. Barron authored an article focused on young children's vocabulary skills. Their study used an adapted alternating-treatments design with four 4-year-old children over 12 weeks to examine word acquisitions. During this time, 36 vocabulary words were introduced through embedded vocabulary instruction conducted with each child through both an automated prerecorded narration and a read aloud by a teacher. The improvement rate suggests that the children learned more words with greater depth in the instructor-led condition.
Our last two articles provide information about promising practices. Sara M. Bauer and Emily A. Jones applied a behavior analytic approach to the development of exploratory motor behavior in infants with Down syndrome. Rather than use the accepted theory that overall delays in motor development effect the progression of exploratory motor behavior in infants with Down syndrome, the authors propose that both environment and biological variables contribute to such delays. The authors use behavior analytic principles to provide intervention strategies that caregivers can use to improve motor behavior in infants with Down syndrome.
Lastly, Kathleen B. Kyzar, Caya Chiu, Peggy Kemp, Heather Michelle Aldersey, Ann P. Turnbull, and David P. Lindeman explored the feasibility of using an online professional development training program for early interventionists. Their article contains information about the development of an online program called Early Years, which was designed to help early interventionists develop partnerships with parents, partnerships in which they could collaboratively determine evidence-based interventions for their children in home and community settings. The program was implemented with learning modules as well as on-site mentor coaching. Pilot data for one of the modules were presented, and the findings suggested that participants found most of the instructional elements in Early Years to be helpful. The authors summarize and propose future research in the area of online instruction and mentor coaching.
As always I thank the editors who helped bring the articles in this issue to their current status and the authors who chose to publish in IYC. We again have an international submission, new authors, and representation from programs from the AUCD network. Happy spring!
-Mary Beth Bruder, PhD
Editor
REFERENCE