BOX IV.1

MEASURES OF COGNITIVE AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Bayley Mental Development Index (MDI) - measures the cognitive, language, and personal-social development of children under age 3½. Children were directly assessed by the Interviewer/Assessor following a standardized protocol.

The MDI is one of three component scales of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development - Second Edition (Bayley 1993). At 24 months, the child is assessed on his/her ability to follow simple spoken directions and on his or her spoken vocabulary during the assessment.

For example, the child is asked to build a tower of cubes; point to a block and a key; point to objects in pictures when the assessor names them; name three objects in a picture book; match three colors; imitate vertical and horizontal strokes; understand directions that include prepositions; and recall geometric forms.

The Bayley MDI was normed on a nationally representative sample of children of various ages so that raw scores can be converted to standardized scores with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.

The percentage of children with Bayley MDI below 100 measures the proportion with scores below average for their age in the nationally representative, standardization sample.

The percentage of children with Bayley MDI below 85 measures the proportion with delayed performance, or scores one standard deviation or more below the standardized mean.

MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) - measures the language development of infants and toddlers by parent report (Fenson, Bates, Dale, Goodman, Reznick, et al. 2000; Jahn-Samilo, Goodman, Bates, and Sweet 2001). Parents completed the Toddler Form at 24 months. Three measures were derived from this form:

Vocabulary Production - measures the number of words in the child's spoken vocabulary. Parents are asked whether the child says each of 100 common early spoken words, such as "moo," "kitty," "cookie," "up," or "big." Scores range from 0, if the child is not yet speaking, to 100, if the child has used all of the words in speech.

Combining Words - indicates whether the child has begun to use two or more words together to express ideas.

Sentence Complexity - measures the extent to which the child is beginning to combine spoken words in grammatically correct ways. The parent is asked which of two phrases sounds more like the way the child currently speaks. Examples include "kitty sleep" versus "kitty sleeping," and (talking about something that already happened): "doggie kiss me" versus "doggie kissed me." Scores range from 0 if the child is not yet combining words to 37 if he or she always uses the grammatically correct phrase.

BOX IV.2

MEASURES OF SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Child Behavior During Parent-Child Structured Play - measures the child's behavior with the parent during a structured play task. The parent and child were given three bags of interesting toys and asked to play with the toys in sequence. The structured play task was videotaped, and child and parent behaviors were coded on a 7-point scale by child development researchers according to strict protocols (see Appendix C). Three aspects of children's behavior with the parent were rated on a 7-point scale:

Engagement - measures the extent to which the child interacts with the parent and communicates positive regard and/or positive affect. Very high engagement receives a 7.

Negativity Toward Parent - measures the child's anger, rejection, or negative reactions to the parent's behavior. Very high negativity receives a 7. Sustained Attention with Objects - measures the duration of the child's focus on an object or set of objects during play. Very high sustained attention receives a 7.

Bayley Behavioral Rating Scale (BRS) - measures the child's behavior during the Bayley MDI assessment. The BRS is one of three component scales of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development - Second Edition (Bayley 1993).

Emotional Regulation - measures the child's ability to change tasks and test materials; negative affect; and frustration with tasks during the assessment.

Orientation/Engagement - measures the child's cooperation with the interviewer during the assessment; positive affect; and interest in the test materials.

The interviewer assesses the child's behavior by scoring items on a 5-point scale, with 5 indicating more positive behavior (for example, less frustration and more cooperation). Scores are the average of the items in the subscale.

Child Behavior Checklist - Aggressive subscale - measures the incidence of 15 child behavior problems that tend to occur together and constitute aggressive behavior problems. Parents completed the Aggressive subscale of the Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 2-3 Years (Achenbach 1993; Achenbach, Edelbrock, and Howell 1987). Some behaviors asked about include, "Child has temper tantrums," "Child hits others," and "Child is easily frustrated." For each of the possible behavior problems, the parent was asked whether the child exhibits this behavior often, sometimes, or never. Scores range from 0, if all of the behavior problems are "never" observed by the parent, to 30, if all of the behavior problems are "often" observed.

Percent with Bayley MDI Below 85

MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (CDI): Vocabulary Production Score

MacArthur CDI: Percent Combining Words

MacArthur CDI: Sentence Complexity Score

BOX IV.3

BEYOND ROUGH AND TUMBLE: FATHERING AND COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT IN 24-MONTH-OLDS

Jacqueline Shannon, Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda, Kevin London, Mark Spellmann, and Natasha Cabrera New York University and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

The Early Head Start Fathers workgroup emerged out of a need to understand the nature and meaning of father involvement in low-income families. In New York City, we focused on positive aspects of low-income fathers' interactions with their toddlers and examined whether fathers' interactions predict the cognitive development of their toddlers.

Participants were 45 father-child dyads (23 boys) taken from the first wave of participants in the 24-month cohort in New York City. Fathers' average age was 26 years (SD=7.23), and children were between 23 and 30 months old. Forty-two percent of the fathers were living with their children. Father-child interactions were videotaped during semistructured free play. Bayley Mental Development Index (MDI) scores were obtained on the children. Father-child interactions were assessed using the Caregiver-Child Affect, Responsive and Engagement Scale. The C-CARES measures parent-child interactions on 23 parent and 16 child behaviors. Each item was rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 "not observed" to 5 "constantly observed."

Factor analyses on father items indicated a three-factor solution (explaining 66 percent of the variance). The first factor, Responsive-Didactic (loading on eight items), reflects paternal behaviors that are positive, responsive, emotionally attuned, and didactic. The second factor, Negative- Unresponsive-Intrusive (loaded on seven items), reflects paternal behaviors that are parent-driven and achievement-oriented through use of highly structured, negative verbal reinforcement, unresponsive, intrusive, and inflexible behaviors. The third factor, Inflexible-Teasing (loaded on two items), reflects paternal behaviors that are inflexible with high levels of teasing. Due to poor reliability, this factor was deleted from further analyses.

The factor analysis on child items revealed a three-factor solution (explaining 72 percent of the variance). The first factor, Cognitive-Playful (loaded on five items), reflects child behaviors that were positive in affect, sophisticated in language and play skills, and highly involved with the toys. The second factor, Social (loaded on four items), reflects child behaviors that are positive, participatory, responsive, and emotionally attuned toward their father. The third factor, Regulated-Persistent (loaded on four items), reflects child behaviors that are highly regulated and persistent.

Children's mean score on the Bayley MDI was 86.13 (SD=11.87). Twenty-five of the children were not developmentally delayed (MDI>85), and 20 were (MDI<85). A binary logistic regression analysis was performed with children's MDI scores (not delayed/delayed) as the outcome variable, and three predictor variables: Cognitive-Playful and Social child behaviors and Responsive-Didactic father behaviors.

In the logistic regression model, child Cognitive-Playful and Social behaviors were not significant predictors of delayed status (social: p = .18, play-language: p = .82). Only father Responsive-Didactic behaviors retained its unique significance as a predictor of delayed status (p = .01). Based on the nonsignificance of child behaviors, a second model was then run, including only father responsive-didactic behaviors as a predictor, to eliminate spurious expansion effects. This model yielded an odds ratio of 10:1, p = .001. The Nagelkerke R2 indicated that this model explained 33 percent of the variance of children's delayed status.

In summary, this investigation of fathers playing with their 24-month-olds indicated two distinct parental styles of engagement: Responsive-Didactic and Negative-Unresponsive-Intrusive. Fathers scoring higher on the Responsive-Didactic style were 10 times less likely to have children who scored in the delayed range of the Bayley MDI. Responsive-Didactic behaviors in fathers contributed unique variance to Bayley scores, over and above child behaviors during the interaction. Although this suggests the relevance of fathers to the cognitive status of their toddlers, the concurrent nature of the study still leaves the question of causal relationship open.

BOX IV.4

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SERVICES AND CHILD OUTCOMES IN AN
URBAN EARLY HEAD START PROGRAM

Jane Atwater, Judith Carta, Jean Ann Summers, and Martha Staker
University of Kansas and Project EAGLE

A primary mission of the Kansas Early Head Start Partnership has been to identify program features and services that are most effective in promoting optimal outcomes for children and families. This mission is fundamental to improving our local program and to contributing to the national knowledge base on effective intervention practice. As a first step in that effort, our interim analyses sought to determine whether differences in service across individual families are related to child progress within Early Head Start. The results of these analyses highlight the importance of active parent engagement to the success of Early Head Start services for young children at risk and suggest that a constellation of services, including quality child care, may support parents' efforts to be actively engaged in services for their young children.

The analysis sample included 77 Early Head Start families in an ethnically diverse, urban community. All families received home-based intervention services. Those with child care needs also received developmentally appropriate, community-based child care.

To track developmental progress, analyses focused on growth over time in children's cognitive development (performance on the Bayley Mental Development Scale) and language development (children's verbal communication during typical activities at home). Child assessments were conducted every four to six months from 8 to 24 months of age.

Program service measures included (1) child's age at enrollment; (2) program model-home visiting only or home visiting plus child care services; (3) duration of services; (4) intensity of home-based services; and (5) parent engagement in the program-a composite based on staff ratings of the consistency in participation over time, active engagement during home visits, and follow-through on individual goals between visits.

In cognitive development, the key result was that children's 24-month outcomes were significantly higher when programs successfully engaged parents as active participants in home-based services. For example, for families in the lowest quartile for engagement, Bayley MDI scores at 24 months averaged 78.46, indicating developmental delay. In contrast, for the most highly engaged families, the mean MDI was 92.74, well within the typical range. For language development, the key result was that, in more highly engaged families, children talked more during home observations and had more rapid increases in verbal communication over time.

As for predictors of engagement, duration of services was positively related to the level of parent engagement. Furthermore, active parent engagement during home-based services was significantly higher in families that also received child care services than in families that had home visits only.

BOX IV.5

KEEPING KIDS ON TRACK: INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF AGE AND INTERVENTION

L.A. Roggman, L.K. Boyce, and G.A. Cook
Utah State University

The goal of Utah's Bear River Early Head Start program is to improve outcomes for infants and toddlers by helping parents support early development. To test whether these Early Head Start children are more on track than non-program children, it is essential to look at the interactive effects of Early Head Start and age with regard to developmental change over time. Using a different approach than that of the cross-site study, we included both age and intervention group in our analyses to compare the developmental track for Early Head Start versus the control group children in two critical outcomes: attachment security and cognitive skills.

Results of between-group repeated measures (by age) analysis of variance showed statistically significant interactions between age and group for both attachment security and cognitive skills. For security F (1,137) = 8.9, p = .003; for cognitive skills F (1, 115) = 4.2, p = .04). For attachment security, only Early Head Start toddlers showed a statistically significant increase in their security scores from 14 to 18 months (simple effects test for Early Head Start group, F (1, 137) = 8.2, p = .005). For cognitive skills, Early Head Start toddlers maintained stable standardized test scores, while control group toddlers, similar to others in poverty, began to lose ground as indicated in a statistically significant decrease in their standardized cognitive skills scores (simple effects test for control group, F [1, 115] = 9.4, p = .003).

In summary, toddlers in Utah's Bear River Early Head Start are staying on track, becoming increasingly secure and maintaining progress in cognitive skills, while toddlers in the control group are beginning to get off track. These differences are likely to become greater with time, favoring those on a more favorable developmental trajectory.

BOX IV.6

FACTORS AFFECTING LANGUAGE OUTCOMES OF YOUNG LATINO CHILDREN IN BILINGUAL ENVIRONMENTS

Judith Cruzado-Guerrero and Judith Carta
University of Kansas

Latino children growing up in bilingual households in inner-city communities are affected by a range of factors that influence their language outcomes. Among these factors are environmental risks, families' degree of acculturation and their expectations for language use related to culture, and amount of exposure to language in and outside the home. This report focuses on these factors in a subsample of 20 children in an urban community from bilingual English/Spanish environments who were involved in the larger Early Head Start national evaluation and whose parents characterized them as being raised in English- or Spanish-dominant bilingual environments.

Bilingual children's language outcomes were measured in both English and Spanish using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory. The relative proportion of children's exposure to English and Spanish was estimated based on parents' report of primary and secondary caregivers who regularly spoke English and/or Spanish to the child. Direct observations of the interaction of children with their parents or other primary caregivers were gathered in typical situations in the home. Data were recorded regarding the percent of intervals parents and children spoke in English and/or Spanish. Other parent measures included their language dominance, their degree of acculturation, and their levels of environmental risk.

Here, we present children's outcomes and their relationships to families' characteristics.

• Vocabulary outcomes showed that, on average, when children's vocabulary sizes in English and Spanish were combined, English-dominant children's vocabularies (M = 478.71) were larger than those of the Spanish-dominant children (M = 392.43).
  
  
• Not surprisingly, children in English-dominant families were estimated to have greater relative exposure to English in their environments.
  
  
• English-dominant children were observed to spend more time being spoken to in English and to verbalize in English.
  
  
• Families who were more likely to verbalize in either language had fewer risks or were more likely to have an Anglo orientation.
  
  
• In general, English-dominant families had lower levels of risk and higher levels of acculturation.