The growth of early childhood programs in this country is a good thing, except when it's not. One of the challenges facing programs and administrators today is how to honor the core principles of child development when planning programs for populations of children who differ on a number of variables such as family circumstance and child ability. One of these core principles is continuity of care in a stable environment with consistent interactions with caregivers.
Although vertical transitions between early childhood staff and early childhood programs occur with regularity for young children because of their chronological age (e.g., toddler program to preschool program), horizontal transitions are occurring with more frequency, especially for children with special needs. For example, many children with disabilities are being served in natural environments and inclusive preschool classrooms and programs. Sometimes, their special needs warrant support and services delivered by different and/or multiple caregivers/teachers. Furthermore, these services are often delivered in different places requiring travel for families or their children to two or more program sites for part of their day. It is not unheard of for a 3-year-old who is in a Head Start classroom to also attend a separate preschool special education classroom in a different building or school for half of his or her day. If the family needs child care, the child may be transported or moved to a child care program until his or her parent(s) can pick him or her up at the end of the day. Likewise, a child who is younger than 3 years may receive specialized services from several different service providers either in his or her home or in other locations. This may be in addition to other programs he or she may attend.
The challenge with these situations is in how to ensure stability and consistency when locations, adults, and interaction styles may be changing multiple times during a day. The caution to policy makers, program administrators, and staff intent on growing our system of early childhood programs is to respect what we know about child development and to plan service delivery around a child's needs as opposed to requiring a child and his or her family to rotate among service sites, programs, and staff. We must display collaborative leadership across funding streams, agency/program mandates, and staff competence to create an early childhood system that minimizes the number of horizontal transitions a child and his or her family make on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
CURRENT ISSUE
Our first article by Rebecca Frantz, Sarah Grace Hansen, Jane Squires, and Wendy Machalicek emphasizes the role of families in their child's development. In particular, they describe the importance of partnering with families and using the family and community context to deliver early intervention. To do this, the authors provide an in-depth description of the Family Resiliency Framework. They provide information about how this framework can be used to identify and facilitate protective factors in families who receive early intervention. They further provide strategies to help families strengthen their resilience and facilitate developmental growth in their children. The authors recommend that the Family Resiliency Framework be used to enhance family functioning throughout early intervention.
Jennifer J. Hurley, Winnie Looby, Ashley R. Goodrum, Elizabeth M. Campbell, Gregg K. Bonti, Becca A. Raymon, Rebecca Condon, Sami E. Schwaeber, Melina E. Mauceri, Erin M. Bourne, Elizabeth D. Callahan, Danielle L. Hardy, and Pamela Mathews examine a vulnerable and growing population within early intervention in the next article. The authors conducted a qualitative study about children and families who are homeless and who are receiving early intervention. Early intervention providers were interviewed about the intervention services delivered to members of this population and the characteristics of the environments in which these services were delivered to children and families. The barriers to providing early intervention services to such a population are highlighted, as are strategies for service delivery and professional development (PD) for service providers who are serving families who are homeless.
Daria I. Chernego, Robert B. McCall, Shannon B. Wanless, Christina J. Groark, Marina J. Vasilyeva, Oleg I. Palmov, Natalia V. Nikiforova, and Rifkat J. Muhamedrahimov provide insight into another vulnerable population in need of early intervention: preterm and full-term infants living in baby homes in Russia. An intervention focused on the social-emotional development of 56 preterm and 93 full-term infants was implemented over the first 2 years of the infants' life. The intervention provided training to caregivers in the baby homes about how to provide a more family-like environment to the babies by implementing warm, sensitive, and responsive interactions with them. Data were collected using the Battelle Developmental Inventory, and the results showed that the intervention positively impacted the infants' general behavior and development in comparison with a group of children who did not receive the intervention. The authors emphasize the importance of a constant and emotionally available caregiver as a facilitator for social-emotional outcomes in vulnerable infants and toddlers.
Christine M. Spence, Susan M. Connor, Theodore Burke, Jehanzeb R. Cheema, and Michaelene M. Ostrosky conducted a statewide assessment to gather information on perceived PD needs with a group of early interventionists. Across 3 years, 4,455 early interventionists responded to the online needs survey. Data were analyzed for reported needs on PD topics in seven broad areas related to early intervention processes and content. Results indicated differences between participants' geographical location, years of experience working in early intervention, and professional discipline. In addition, respondents with fewer years of early intervention experience reported statistically significant higher PD needs for six of the seven topical areas. Implications for future needs assessments, PD, and research are discussed.
Our last article is by Ana Cristina Barros da Cunha, Michelle Denise Berkovits, and Karolina Alves Albuquerque. They conducted a systematic literature review to evaluate the Battelle Developmental Inventory (BDI-2); an assessment tool used to evaluate child development. The authors point out that despite widespread clinical use, there is an absence of research on this tool. Seven databases were searched to retrieve articles in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. Overall, 34 articles were evaluated for general features, salient findings, and key methodological issues such as target population, objectives, research design, and main results. Results indicated that 41% of studies with the BDI originated in the United States, with the most common target population being children with autism spectrum disorders. This review suggests the importance of conducting independent analyses of the BDI to insure appropriate use of it, especially with non-American populations.
I would like to thank the authors for submitting their work to Infants & Young Children and the reviewers who assisted the editorial process by offering salient suggestions to bring these manuscripts to publication. The articles represent international authors, authors from the AUCD network, and new authors.
-Mary Beth Bruder, PhD
Editor