Child development and school readiness

The promotion of child development and school readiness is an important goal for some of the early childhood home visiting models in the HomVEE review. Models address this goal by engaging parents in activities designed to improve child functioning across developmental areas, educating parents about child development and strategies to enhance school readiness (such as literacy activities), and promoting positive parent-child interactions. Some also link families to center-based early childhood care and education experiences.

Outcomes in this domain include the child’s social behaviors, attachment to a parent or caregiver, social-emotional or psychological development, or cognitive and academic development. Outcome measures in this domain include direct child assessments, reviews of school records, direct observations of children’s behavior, and parent and teacher reports on standardized measures. Other outcome measures include parent and teacher reports on measures that are not standardized. Note: if a parent or child reports that the child ran away from home, that measure would be reported in this domain. However, if the information were drawn from child welfare records, that measure would be listed under the reductions in child maltreatment domain.

Child mental and behavioral health belong in this domain. HomVEE categorizes measures of children’s mental and behavioral health in the child development and school readiness domain, in contrast to the measures of physical health that are reported in the child health domain. Measures that cannot be clearly linked to children’s mental and behavioral health are ineligible for review.

Formal child care. HomVEE categorizes measures of attendance at formal, center-based care or formal, family child care in early childhood in this domain, and categorizes the direction of statistically significant impacts on such measures as having ambiguous direction. Measures of informal care arrangements (such as care from relatives or friends) are ineligible for review. Measures that combine attendance at formal care with informal arrangements (such as care from relatives or friends) are eligible for review in this domain, and HomVEE categorizes the direction of statistically significant impacts on such measures as having ambiguous direction. HomVEE also categorizes measures of the amount of time a child attends formal, center-based care or formal, family daycare in this domain, and categorizes the direction of statistically significant impacts on such measures as having ambiguous direction. 

Categorizing runaway information. If a parent or child reports that the child ran away from home, that measure would be reported in this domain. In contrast, if a child running away is information drawn from child welfare records, that measure would be listed under the reductions in child maltreatment domain.

Categorizing attachment measures. Attachment between parent and child is a dyadic concept that does not map precisely to one single outcome domain HomVEE focuses on, as specified in MIECHV authorizing statute (Social Security Act, Section 511 [42 U.S.C. 711]). Therefore, if a measure of attachment examines child behavior, HomVEE places it in the child development and school readiness domain. Examples include attachment to the caregiver during infancy, engagement in a difficult task during toddler years, problem behaviors, and inhibitory control. In contrast, HomVEE places attachment measures that examine caregiver behavior (such as sensitivity and nurturance), as well as measures that are truly dyadic (such as the Dyadic Coercive Interactions measure in the Relationship Affect Coding System), in the positive parenting practices domain.

The effects shown in the research are grouped into four categories: (1) favorable, (2) no effect, (3) unfavorable or ambiguous, and (4) not measured. Results for models that only have low-rated research are listed as “not applicable.” For more information on these categories please read the procedures and standards handbook. Only results from manuscripts that receive a moderate or high rating are considered below. This table includes manuscripts links to more information on the model’s effectiveness, implementation, and details on findings in this domain.

Effects shown in research — Child development and school readiness domain