Doré R. LaForett

The present study examined parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of student learning in Spanish–English Dual Language Education (DLE) programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants included 72 parents of students from kindergarten to second grade and eight teachers in two schools in the southeastern U.S. Parents retrospectively reported their perceptions of their children’s instruction and learning experiences in English and Spanish during the 2020–2021 school year. Teachers reported if their students had opportunities to practice oral bilingual skills and their perception of students’ improvement in English and Spanish skills. Parents reported that there were more opportunities to practice English than there were to practice Spanish. Teachers reported that remote instruction offered fewer opportunities than hybrid instruction did to practice oral language skills. Overall, the teachers agreed that students’ language skills in English and Spanish improved. Similarly, the parents agreed that students’ language skills improved; however, they reported that their English skills improved more than their Spanish skills did. Student and family background factors, such as language fluency and parental education, were negatively associated with barriers to remote access. Implications for future research and suggestions for supporting students attending DLE programs during remote instruction are offered.

This article examined the associations between family processes and children’s development among mothers and their children participating in early intervention (EI) services. Data from mothers and their infants and toddlers ( n = 100) participating in EI were analyzed using regression methods to test the predictive power of maternal depressive symptoms, self-efficacy, and quality of mother–child interactions on children’s behavior problems and social and emotional competence. Mother–child interactions were the most robust predictor of child behavior problems and competence. The presence of clinically elevated maternal depressive symptoms was high (30%) and associated with more child behavior problems. Stronger endorsement of self-efficacy also was related to higher levels of child social and emotional competence. We discuss our findings related to opportunities and challenges to support mothers experiencing depressive symptoms. EI services that strive toward an integrated approach could identify mothers with depressive symptoms and play an increased role in directly addressing their needs.

This paper describes how training school and clinical psychology graduate students in early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) has the potential to fill gaps in the ECMHC workforce, enhance the capacity of early care and education (ECE) providers to effectively support the mental health needs of children and families, and help ECE programs provide equitable services to children and families. We first present the need for explicit ECMHC training in school and clinical psychology doctoral programs, and how didactic coursework and practica could align with national competencies for high-quality ECMHC. We then illustrate how graduate programs might aspire to greater impact by 1) shifting to promotion and prevention, systems- and organizational-based practice orientations, and equity and cultural competence principles; and 2) leveraging ECE programming to infuse ECMHC practice. We conclude with a call to action for graduate programs to address this need for mental health professionals with specialized ECMHC competencies.

Disproportionate rates of suspension and expulsion, evident from early childhood, for students of color relative to White peers are a significant racial equity issue in the U.S. education system, with far-reaching effects. In this article, we present a logic model for educator-level interventions that have the potential to reduce disparate discipline practices and ultimately work toward a more equitable school climate. We describe how an integrated approach to supporting all children's constitutional right to a free public education, which is prevented by exclusionary discipline practices, must purposefully integrate social and emotional learning, classroom management, cultural competence, and racial equity approaches that target educators. Together, the integration of these approaches has the potential to impact initial, intermediate, and long-term education outcomes by enhancing educators' practices and raising awareness of their internal and interpersonal biases and role in perpetuating institutional racism in education. We conclude with recommendations for how this logic model can be used to guide future research to further our knowledge in this area to support educators in their practice and inform educational policy.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the implementation of an evidence-based treatment, the Incredible Years® (IY) Small Group Dina Dinosaur Treatment program, as delivered in elementary schools to address the needs of children in kindergarten through second grade with self-regulation difficulties. Adaptations for school-based delivery of 17 intervention groups across three cohorts and 11 schools from an ongoing randomized controlled trial are described and implementation data including qualitative feedback from school stakeholders are presented. Results show that, with implementation supports, this adapted model can be delivered in schools with fidelity comparable to the clinic-based model, although several activities were delivered at lower dosage in the low-income urban schools as compared with low-income rural or better resourced schools. Satisfaction among school counselors, teachers, and parents was consistently high. Implementation challenges include logistics such as space and scheduling, program fit with school practices and policies, use of specific treatment strategies such as time-out within the school context, capacity of school personnel to deliver the program, and selection of students and group composition. Lessons learned can inform adaptation and delivery of other evidence-based clinic treatments in school settings.

Objective A higher rate of depressive symptoms is found among mothers of children with disabilities compared to other parents. However, there is a lack of study of mothers with children Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted with 106 women who had at least one child enrolled in EI. Mothers were interviewed and completed reliable, valid measures to evaluate mental health, health status, family conflict, parent–child interaction, self-efficacy, social support, child behavioral problems, hardship, endangerment, and child disability. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analyses were performed. Results We found 8 % of participants met all criteria for a Major Depressive Episode (MDE) with 44 % of the sample reporting a past episode and 43 % endorsing recurrent episodes. Using the CES-D to assess depressive symptom severity approximately 34 % of mothers screened in a clinically significant range. Using linear regression to predict severity of current depressive symptoms demonstrated that current depression severity was primarily predicted by poorer maternal health status, lower self-efficacy and past MDE (p < 0.05). Conclusions for practice A brief assessment of maternal mood, health and self-efficacy are important factors to assess when evaluating how to support mothers of children in EI.

This study examined parents’ developmentally appropriate beliefs about young children’s play and parents’ views on their child’s play skills. This exploratory secondary data analysis was drawn from data on low-income African-American and Latino parents and their children (n = 109) participating in Head Start programmes in the USA. Compared with African-American parents, Latino parents were more likely to endorse play as valuable (Play Support) for promoting preschool children’s social skills and school readiness, yet were also more likely to see play as not as important as academic readiness activities (Academic Focus). Parental endorsement of Play Support beliefs positively related to children’s interactive play skills; Academic Focus beliefs negatively related to interactive play. These relations emerged for African American, but not Latino, children. Implications for understanding how culture may intersect with parents’ play beliefs, opportunities to promote children’s play competence, and alignment with play-based pedagogies are discussed.

This study examined associations between parents’ developmentally appropriate beliefs about young children’s play and responsive parenting. Low-income parents and their children enrolled in Head Start programmes (n = 231) in the United States participated in the study. Responsive parenting skills (characterized by high levels of warmth and responsiveness, and lower levels of hostility) were related to parents’ beliefs endorsing play as valuable (Play Support) for promoting preschool children’s social skills and school readiness. Additionally, higher levels of parent depression were negatively associated with Play Support beliefs while higher levels of parent efficacy were positively associated. Parent education showed a positive relation with Play Support beliefs and a negative relationship with beliefs regarding focusing on academic readiness of children without playful learning (Academic Focus). Implications for understanding play-based approaches for promoting children’s developmental outcomes within early childhood programmes and family interventions are discussed.