Research Rationale


Findings from more than three decades of research in child and family development support the vision and goals set forth for support to families with infants and toddlers. We know that the time from conception to age three is a critical period of human development, as change occurs more rapidly than in any other period of the life span. Growth in these early years establishes the basic foundation for future development. For infants and toddlers to develop optimally, they must have healthy beginnings and the continuity of responsive and caring relationships. Together, these supports help promote optimal cognitive, social, emotional, physical, and language development. When these supports are missing, the immediate and future development of the child may be compromised. Fortunately, recent research identifies characteristics of effective programs that enhance both child and family development. This growing body of knowledge provides a solid base upon which the Early Head Start program can be founded.
 

Maternal and Infant Health

Maternal and infant health are essential for ensuring normal pre and post-natal development of very young children. Late or inadequate prenatal care, malnutrition, stress and exposure to harmful substances are associated with shortened gestation, reduced birthweight, birth defects and underdeveloped brain growth (Osofsky, 1975; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1989; Carnegie Corporation, 1994). These, in turn, have been associated with higher probabilities for infant mortality, illness, disabilities, child abuse, difficulty in relationships (Glasgow and Overall, 1979) and subsequent learning disorders (Drillien, Thomson and Bargoyne, 1980). During the early years of life, proper nutrition, routine well-child health care, timely immunizations, safe environments and health-promoting behaviors are necessary to support physical growth and development.

Given the paramount importance of health for very young children, a major focus of the Early Head Start program must be to ensure women receive the health services needed to promote a healthy pregnancy and birth, and very young children receive early and ongoing well-baby care, immunizations, and other essential health services to support their development.
 

Child-Caregiver Relationships

The child-caregiver relationships with the mother, father, grandparent and other caregivers are critical for providing infants and toddlers support, engagement, continuity and emotional nourishment necessary for healthy development, and the development of healthy attachments '(Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters and Wall, 1978). Within the context of caregiving relationships, the infant builds a sense of What is expected, what feels right in the world, as well as skills and incentives for social turn-taking, reciprocity and cooperation (Emde, Biringen, Clyman and Oppenheirn, 1991; Isabella and Belsky, 1991). The infant's activities are nourished and channeled in appropriate ways so as to encourage a sense of initiative and self-directedness. During the toddler period, the child, through repeated interactions with emotionally-available caregivers, also begins to. learn basic skills of self-control, emotional regulation and negotiation (Kochanska, 1991; Kopp, 1989; Suess, Grossman and Sroufe, 1992). Empathy for others and prosocial tendencies for caring and helping also develop during toddlerhood as well as the emotions of pride and shame; experiencing and learning about these capacities require responsive caregiving relationships in the midst of life's inevitable stresses and challenges (Zahn-Waxler and Radke-Yarrow, 1990).

A sense of pleasure, interest in exploration, early imaginative capacities, and the sharing of positive emotions also begin in infancy—all of which require repeated and consistent caregiver relationship experiences and form a basis for social competence that carries through toddlerhood and the preschool period (Emde, 1989; Dix, 1991). The opportunities for play for both infant and caregiver, as well as the skills that develop from play, are often under-appreciated aspects of healthy development (Bruner, 1986; Elicker, Englund and Sroufe, 1992).

Finally, the importance of promoting a network of healthy caregiving relationships for the very young child cannot be overstated (Crockenberg, 1981; Egeland, Jacobvitz and Stroufe, 1988; Sameroff and Emde, 1989, Tronick, Winn and Morelli, 1985). The network of caring relationships provides and ever-expanding circle of support and maternal depression (Crnic, Greenberg, Robinson, and Ragozin, 1984), the latter reported to be as high as 56% in some samples of low-income new mothers (Hall, Gurley, Sachs and Kryscio, 1991). In child care settings, high staff turnover, low staff wages, low quality programming and lack of adequate staff training for substitute caregivers negatively affects th quality of child-caregiver relatonships (Zigler and Lang, 1991; Whitebook, Howes and Phillips, 1989). This in turn further comprimises the nature and quality of the child's overall development.

Thus, it follows that a major focus for Early Head Start services should be the development of healthy and skillful relationship building between very young children and their parents and caregivers that encourages interactions an promotes attention and activity infants. Hence, opportunities for sustained relationship-building over extended periods of times will be an explicit goal throughout the program.
 

Characteristics of Successful Programs Serving Families with Infants and Toddlers

The goal of many early child development programs is to enable the child, with the support of the parents as primary caregivers and other caregivers, to establish a developmental path that will prepare him or her for long-term success. Hundreds of programs with a variety of specific emphases have sought to acheive this goal. From these many interventions, a picture of the critical ingredients for successful programs has emerged. In short, we know effective programs often are characterized by: early prenatal services to the expectant women (Olds, Henderson, Tatelbaum and Chamberlin, 1986); a two generational focus (Zuckerman and Brazelton, 1994; Administration on Children, Youth and Families, 1994; Ramey and Campbell, 1984; Brooks-Gunn, Klebanov, Liaw, Spiker, 1993); family-centered services that address self-sufficiency through the provision of social services and' parent education '(Booth, Barnard, Mitchell and Spieker, 1987; Olds, Henderson, Tatebaum and Chamberlin, 1986; Olds, Henderson, Tatebaum and Chamberlin, 1988); quality child development services that are coupled with family services (Lally, Mangione and Honig, 1987; Brooks-Gunn, Klebanov, Liaw and Spiker, 1993); continuity of service delivery for the child and family that ensures the availability of support over a number of years with smooth transitions to other service delivery systems (Campbell and Ramey, 1994); continuity of caregivers (Howes and Hamilton, 1992); intensity of service delivery in terms of availability, accessibility, and usage of services (Booth, Barnard, Mitchell and Spieker, 1987; Ramey, Bryant, Wasik, Sparling, Fendt and LaVange, 1992); and consolidation or integration of service delivery systems. Further, research tells us that communities have been found to become more responsive to the needs of low-income families as a result of program activities (Kirschner, 1970).

Clearly, research over the past three decades has shown that when programs focus on both child development and family development through early, high quality, comprehensive, continuous, intensive services, opportunities for optimal child and family development can be realized, even for the most vulnerable families and very young children. The challenge for the Administration on Children, Youth and Families and the programs which will receive funds through this initiative is to translate these research findings into the design and operation of high quality programs so all families with young children served by Early Head Start will be able to grow and prosper. The following principles and cornerstones establish the framework for this to occur.