Edward F. Zigler - Böcker

In this book a blue-ribbon group of practitioners, researchers, and policymakers provide an overview of the numerous programs that have emerged in the past decade in response to the changing needs of families. Addressing the historical and social context of current family support efforts, the range and variety of the programs, available research, and the challenges of funding, staffing, and managing them, it chronicles past problems and accomplishments and offers specific recommendations for the future. "A timely and important book."—T. Berry Brazelton, M.D. "This remarkable volume surveys a multitude of services available to support the increasingly beleaguered family; the focus is on local services, in the context of organizations and outside them. the book's emphasis on available services makes it a key resource for health professionals, but its aim is broader-to foster advocacy of change in organizational and governmental policies."—Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic

For almost thirty years, the U.S. government has funded education programs to help disadvantaged children succeed in school. In this important new book, Edward Zigler, one of the leading figures in this effort, and his associates evaluate the three existing programs (Head Start, Follow Through, and Chapter 1), Senator Edward Kennedy describes the newly created Head Start Transition Project, and the authors propose a bold plan to redirect and consolidate the programs in order to achieve a coherent, comprehensive policy for the nation's impoverished young children.The authors conclude that the Head Start model has been effective in enhancing the social competence and school success of poor children. They argue that Follow Through, which was intended to be a national program, now represents a tiny experiment in education that is too minimally funded to have an impact. And Chapter 1, which exists in over 90 percent of the nation's school districts and is massively funded, has become a supplementary funding program for local schools rather than a demonstrably effective educational treatment. The new Head Start Transition Project plans to extend Head Start's health and other support services, its efforts to involve parents, and its creative programming and evaluation to children in kindergarten through third grade. The authors suggest an alternative plan: that the huge Chapter 1 program adopt the model of the Transition Project and become the school-age version of Head Start, creating a well-funded, coordinated, and cost-effective series of interventions with unified goals and comprehensive services to meet the needs of poor children from the preschool years through the early elementary grades.

Recommendations for infant and toddler care and development based on current brain research and its implicationsHow much do children’s early experiences affect their cognitive and social development? How important is the parent’s role in child development? Is it possible to ameliorate or reverse the consequences of early developmental deficits? This vitally important book draws on the latest research from the social sciences and studies on the brain to answer these questions and to explore what they mean for social policy and child and family development.The authors affirm that sound social policy providing for safe and appropriate early care, education, health care, and parent support is critical not only for the optimal development of children, but also for strengthening families, communities, and the nation as a whole. Offering a wealth of advice and recommendations, they explain:• the benefits of family leave, child care, and home visitation programs;• the damage that child abuse inflicts;• the vital importance of nutrition (and breast feeding) for pregnant women and young children;• the adverse effects that occur in misguided efforts to disseminate research too early;• and more.Written by experts in the field of early child development, care, and education, the book is essential reading for parents and policymakers alike.

Why the United States has failed to establish a comprehensive high-quality child care program is the question at the center of this book. Edward Zigler has been intimately involved in this issue since the 1970s, and here he presents a firsthand history of the policy making and politics surrounding this important debate. Good-quality child care supports cognitive, social, and emotional development, school readiness, and academic achievement. This book examines the history of child care policy since 1969, including the inside story of America’s one great attempt to create a comprehensive system of child care, its failure, and the lack of subsequent progress. Identifying specific issues that persist today, Zigler and his coauthors conclude with an agenda designed to lead us successfully toward quality care for America’s children.

Children, Families, and Government: Preparing for the Twenty-first Century analyses the relationship between child development research and the design and implementation of social policy concerning children and families. This book is both timely and enduring; perennially important issues like health care, welfare reform, and drug abuse, are addressed in a context that enables the reader to relate current events to the theories and foundations on which policies are based. It highlights state of the art research and reforms to specify policy areas affecting children and families.

Children, Families, and Government: Preparing for the Twenty-first Century analyses the relationship between child development research and the design and implementation of social policy concerning children and families. This book is both timely and enduring; perennially important issues like health care, welfare reform, and drug abuse, are addressed in a context that enables the reader to relate current events to the theories and foundations on which policies are based. It highlights state of the art research and reforms to specify policy areas affecting children and families.