Table Of ContentFPG
Child early developments
Development
Institute
The University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill Spring 2006 | Vol. 10, No. 1
Celebrating 40 Years
spring 2006 | early developments
news
Partnerships for
Inclusion Recognized
for Public Service
P
artnerships for Inclusion (PFI) Bailey Caps
of the FPG Child Development FPG Career with
Institute recently received a Major Award
2006 Office of the Provost Award for D
on Bailey, director
its extraordinary public service. The
of the FPG Child
award acknowledged how PFI excels in
Development
bridging practice and research.
Institute and W.R. Kenan,
Jr., Distinguished Professor,
The mission of PFI, a statewide
has received the Research
technical assistance project, is to
Career Scientist Award from
promote the inclusion of young
the Academy on Mental
children with disabilities (ages birth–5
Retardation.
years) and their families in all aspects
of community life. In 15 years of service,
The organization recognizes a distinguished person
the project has engaged 75,000 people.
whose professional career has significantly advanced
the field of developmental disabilities. Bailey’s work has
PFI’s staff includes Pat Wesley, Brenda
focused on early intervention for young children with
Coleman, Brenda Dennis, Rhodus
disabilities and their families. In the past decade, he has
Riggins, Jr., Allen Ryan, Sabrina
studied children and families with fragile X syndrome, the
Tyndall, Susan Deans, Sandy Steele,
most common inherited cause of intellectual disability.
and Libby Wilson.
He is currently planning a large study of newborn
screening for conditions such as fragile X.
On the Cover…
Page from
a Family
Album
Four decades of
happy, nurtured
children in the
FPG Family
& Child Care
FPG … Advancing knowledge. Enhancing lives.
Program.
early developments | spring 2006
contents
| |
ed
Building Bridges shows teachers, children and families how literacy resolves conflict and other social-emotional issue-
early developments
Spring 2006 | Vol. 10, No. 1
ISSN 1536-4739
Editors
Pam Winton, Virginia Buysse, Director’s Notes
Catherine Hamrick
Don Bailey reflects on FPG’s 40-year mission to
Designer generate new knowledge in service of a higher
Gina Harrison goal—the well-being of children and their families
4
Photographers
Don Trull
John Cotter
Assistant Editor
Jay Hargrove
FPG—A Place for
www.fpg.unc.edu
All Children
Early Developments is published three
How FPG Learn about FPG’s history of serving children
times a year by the FPG Child Devel-
opment Institute at The University of Got Its Groove who have special needs as well as those who
North Carolina at Chapel Hill. FPG is are ethnically and linguisticially diverse
one of the nation’s oldest multidisci-
The Abecedarian Project shows how at-risk 16
plinary centers devoted to the study
of children and families. Our mission is children can thrive thanks to high-quality
to cultivate and share knowledge that educational intervention
enhances child development and fam-
5
ily well being.
To subscribe or
to change your address
contact Jay Hargrove
CB #8185, UNC-CH
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8185
919.966.0888 FirstSchool
[email protected]
The case for a new early childhood
To order additional copies
education framework
contact FPG Publications Office
919.966.4221 Measuring & 21
[email protected]
Improving Quality
Periodicals postage paid at
Chapel Hill, NC FPG scientists employ different methods Recent Publications
to ensure high standards apply to
Total design, production, and printing costs early childhood practices 26
of this issue of Early Developments
were $8617; 10,000 copies of this 11
document were printed at a cost of $6000 Don Bailey’s Legacy
or 60¢ each.
The retiring director is celebrated for his strong
leadership, personable style, & tireless dedication
27
spring 2006 | early developments
Reflecting on FPG’s 40 Years of
Advancing Knowledge, Enhancing Lives
In 1977 I had the privilege of taking a class was felt in the courts and in the schools, where
on developmental theory at the University the inclusion of children with disabilities had been
of Washington with Hal Robinson, founding resisted. The National Institutes of Health established
director of the fpg Child Development Institute. He a national network of mental retardation research
said something the that really stuck with me: “No centers. Based on the assumption that the early years
developmental theorist can be fully understood are also important for children with disabilities, fpg,
without also understanding what was going on at the along with the Division for Development and Learning and the
time she or he lived.” Likewise, the FPG cannot be fully Biological Sciences Research Center, submitted a successful
understood without knowledge of the events that led to its application and The University of North Carolina became one
birth and those that have occurred during its 40-year lifetime. of the first 12 centers funded in 1966. Thus began a 40-year
What was going on when fpg started? First, the tradition of research on children with disabilities, their families,
devastating effects of poverty, juxtaposed with the and the programs designed to serve them.
prosperity enjoyed by a number of Americans, Although our primary mission is to generate
led many to believe that America had a moral new knowledge, this research is in the service of a
obligation to eliminate poverty, or at least reduce higher goal: child and family well being. We stated
its occurrence. Many felt that the only way to it well in our mission statement a few years ago:
break the cycle of poverty was to start with “to cultivate and share the knowledge necessary
the children. fpg launched research that led to enhance child development and family well
to innovative curricula, focused on the core elements of being.” We distilled this further in our tag line: “Advancing
quality, and provided full-day interventions for children knowledge, enhancing lives.”
beginning at birth. We are about to complete a study of 30- But this phrase is not just a tag line—it encapsulates 40
year-old adults who participated in these early programs—a years of striving to be an objective, knowledgeable force for
remarkable testament to the enduring nature of both the social change in the service of our youngest citizens.
question of whether early intervention is effective and our Serving as fpg’s director has been the greatest honor
persistence in providing an answer. of my professional career. As I complete my final year of
Second, women were entering work at record service, I look back with tremendous gratitude
levels, including mothers of very young children. for the commitment, passion, and integrity that
This sparked a dramatic increase in the need have characterized our founders, the person
for child care. Many of these mothers were for whom we are named, and the hundreds of
well-educated and from middle or upper income dedicated employees who have made fpg what
families, so the question of what to do with young it is today. A commitment to doing high-quality,
children quickly became one that was not limited to timely research on important issues of the day,
low-income families. Many people were concerned paired with a commitment to using this information to
that the proliferation of child care would lead to the end appropriately influence social change, will sustain this
of the family as we know it. Thus fpg began a program of organization for many years to come.
research, still active today, on the institutions that care for But much remains to be accomplished. Convincing policy
young children and the effects of varying quality of care on makers and the public that we must invest new resources
their development and relationships with their families. to ensure the well being of every young child will continue
Third, the outrageous treatment of individuals with disabilities to be a challenge. We must do the research and provide
in residential institutions was the outreach needed to
made real in books such as accomplish this goal. The
Christmas in Purgatory. The children are waiting.
anger of parents and advocates —Don Bailey
early developments | spring 2006
How
FPG
Got Its
Groove
Photo: FPG Archives
The
The 1960sm arked an era of soul-searching
on economic and social issues.
Abecedarian
The civil rights movement gathered momentum. More women
were entering the workforce at younger ages. A high rate
Story
of intergenerational poverty existed, profoundly affecting
African American children. These issues as well as research
on the importance of very early experience to later learning
precipitated the belief that high-quality child care during the
earliest years might prevent school failure and break the
poverty cycle. This climate also gave rise to the belief that
early intervention for children with disabilities could help
them succeed in their families, schools, and communities.
Under President John F. Kennedy, the federal government
became involved in raising awareness of and developing
policy for mental retardation.
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In 1966 at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, field of mental retardation but also to produce a program
a small group of scientists founded a multidisciplinary that had practical value to society.”
center committed to improving the lives of young children
and their families through research, teaching, and service. The Abecedarian Project—A Living Legacy
Initially called the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Jim Gallagher became director of fpg in 1970. Dr. Craig
Center, later renamed the fpg Child Development Institute. T. Ramey, now the director of the Center for Health and
The National Institutes of Health awarded 12 grants Education at Georgetown University, took over the child
to establish centers across the nation to study and treat care research project, which grew into the Abecedarian
mental retardation, but the Frank Porter Graham Child Early Childhood Intervention Project, one of the premier
Development Center was the only one of these centers longitudinal child care intervention studies in the country.
to focus on prevention of mental Derived from Middle English and
retardation. Drs. Hal Robinson and Latin, the word Abecedarian means
There was a sweeping
Nancy Robinson, husband and wife one who teaches or studies the
team, set out to determine whether vision that we were alphabet or one who is just learning,
quality child care made a difference a beginner. This project was a
in intellectual deficits in children not only going to do carefully controlled ongoing scientific
of at-risk families. They also raised study of the potential benefits
research in the field
questions about the effects of group of early childhood education for
care for infants and how groups of disadvantaged children.
of mental retardation
different races and socioeconomic “By the 1960s and 1970s, the first
backgrounds could blend in a but also to produce round of intervention projects had
positive way. started. Abecedarian was in that
a program that had
By 1967 an ambitious plan took forefront nationally,” says Sparling.
root: to create an educational It differed from other childhood
practical value to
complex for at-risk children from intervention projects because: 1) it
birth to age 12. The complex would society. began in early infancy instead of age
include an elementary school and a 3 or older and 2) the treated children
medical facility geared to addressing were exposed to a high-quality child
the causes, prevention, and treatment care setting for five years instead of a
of mild mental retardation. In addition to conducting an shorter duration typical of other projects.
intervention program for children at risk, the plan would Following an experimental design, the Abecedarian
endeavor to establish a real world community of children Project at first involved 111 at-risk children from low-income
and families from diverse backgrounds. However, the plan families recruited through prenatal clinics and departments
fell apart when the research funding limited services only to of family services in Chapel Hill and Orange County. Most
children directly at risk. The Robinsons moved on, but the were African American and born between 1972 and 1977.
child development program continued, with a tighter focus Infants between the ages of 6 and 12 weeks were
on at-risk children. randomly assigned to two groups. Fifty-seven children
“In the 1960s there was talk about the ‘cycle of poverty’ accepted assignments to a full-time child care setting at fpg,
and how generation after generation had problems in which emphasized high-quality educational intervention
school and life,” recalls Dr. Joseph Sparling, currently an from infancy through age 5. Fifty-four children in the control
fpg fellow and formerly the fpg associate director who was group were cared for at home or attended other full-time
recruited to help design and administer the intervention child care centers. Eventually the study design permitted a
program. “There was an optimistic feeling at the time that comparison of outcomes in four groups of students who had
we could solve this social problem. There was a sense of preschool treatment (infancy–5 years) plus early elementary
concern, because of the civil rights movement, that there school treatment (5–8 years), preschool treatment alone
needed to be more equity in society and that universities (infancy–5 years), early elementary school treatment alone
needed to respond. Educators and psychologists saw a (5–8 years), and untreated controls.
social role for themselves. Until then they primarily viewed Dr. Frances Campbell, who was recruited to evaluate the
their role as creating knowledge. There was a sweeping children, recalls how the study differed from child care
vision that we were not only going to do research in the practices of the day: “There was nowhere near the amount
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of infant child care that was needed. There were few good, program, but they could not choose which group
safe, supportive places for little children. Most child care, [intervention or control] their child would be in. Families
if available at all, wanted children who were toilet trained. in the control group received formula for 15 months and
The idea of starting with young infants was very unusual. diapers for three years. The reason for the formula was to
“Some theorists said that the variance in children’s ensure that control group children had adequate nutrition
intellect was already set by age 4. Other models implied during their first year.”
that learning was most malleable in very early periods fpg’s center-based preschool program ran from
of life. But nobody had done the randomized trials that 7:30 am to 5:30 pm every weekday for 50 weeks yearly.
Craig Ramey envisioned here. He was a developmental Transportation was free. Teacher-child ratios ranged from 1 to
psychologist who believed that infants begin to learn 3 for infants and toddlers and from 1 to 6 for older children.
immediately and that they develop optimally in a
responsive environment. He wanted to know what would A Breakthrough Curriculum
happen if we started with infants. He was very lucky that In 1978 Joseph Sparling and colleague Isabelle Lewis
society’s imperative need for infant child care offered the published the Abecedarian curriculum as a book, the
chance to learn something important.” culmination of years of research and testing. “In the 1970s
A few early intervention programs targeting a focused individual approach to teaching and ongoing
disadvantaged children were underway in other parts of the assessment was not part of child care,” says Sparling.
country. For example, the Perry Preschool program enrolled “Most parents and child development professionals thought
123 African American children (ages 3 and 4) in Ypsilanti, [early] child care should be safe and loving, nothing more.
Michigan, in the mid-1960s. The children were randomly The notion of really teaching young children anything else
divided into a program group who benefited from a high- was not often accepted.” Nonetheless, fpg researchers
quality preschool program and a comparison group who forged ahead.
did not receive a preschool program. Interviewed at age The Abecedarian curriculum stressed language
40, the subjects who participated in the preschool program development while serving all developmental needs of
had higher earnings, tended to hold jobs, committed fewer the children in the preschool program. In creating the
crimes, and were more likely to have attended high school. curriculum, researchers equated developmental activities
But unlike almost all programs of the time, the Abecedarian with games because they occur in a playful back-and-forth
intervention targeted infants. exchange between adult and child.
Abecedarian researchers used a high-risk index to This idea of play as a learning tool was not original. “The
assess risk for retarded intellectual development. Selected educator Friedrich Fröbel wrote a whole book on play in
background factors included household income, parental the 1800s,” says Sparling. “It had games and songs that
occupations, parental education, parent intellectual mothers could play with children to help them become
development, school histories of family members, and aware of various occupations and experiences. I picked up
welfare status. on the game idea and decided it was a good way to make a
Carrie Bynum, who had worked at unc Hospital, initially curriculum.”
joined the team as one of the child caregivers, then became Sparling and Lewis took a building block approach
head of the infant program and eventually the study’s in developing the curriculum. In addition to taking into
family coordinator. From the outset, she recruited families account the milestones of child development and the
and infants to participate in the program. “I identified findings of developmental research, they also asked
young mothers who were about to deliver,” she says. “I parents coming to the center as well as their neighbors
knew the social workers at the hospital nursery. It was not some practical questions: What do you want your child to
hard to locate families. Once we got going, the grapevine achieve in the first year? What do you want your child to
started in the community. achieve by age 2? They incorporated the parents’ ideas into
“No other programs took infants, so they [parents] some of the games.
wanted to know about ours. I had people calling me day The intent was to make the games effective throughout
and night. So most referrals happened in the community. the day. Sometimes they integrated traditional activities
“I would do a screening at their [expectant mothers’] such as peek-a-boo but added variations. “You can do
homes and tell them about the program. Of course, more than hide behind a cloth and peek at the child,”
everybody wanted to be in the daycare program. I says Sparling. “You can use a newspaper or get behind the
explained to them that they could participate in the couch and pop up.”
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During the 1970s, Joseph Sparling and Isabelle
Lewis devised 100 “games” for children from
infancy to 3 years to stimulate development.
A compilation was published in 1978. Each
self-contained game included pictures and
descriptions. Over time Sparling and Lewis
came up with 300 games that were published
as popular books for parents, caregivers, and
teachers in the LearningGames series: Birth to
12 Months, 12 to 24 Months, 24 to 36 Months, 36
to 48 Months, and 48 to 60 Months. Photo: FPG Archives
Sparling and Lewis purposely kept the games short. “We it took for the child to respond as well as the number of
made ourselves write each game on one sheet of paper. If the correct and incorrect responses. We tossed out the games
game was longer, we shortened it or got rid of it. That was that didn’t work.”
part of our idea—to make the games simple enough so that This testing of the curriculum involved over 300
the user would grasp them quickly. We also tried to make “small” experiments, with about 200 producing a
the games fun so that the adults would keep using them.” successful game. In 1978 the curriculum was published
Researchers took the games into the nursery or classroom as the LearningGames book series. This breakthrough Photo: FPG Archives
for formative evaluation. “We gave the teacher a sheet product was the first infant and toddler curriculum to
explaining the game and asked them to try it out for two be scientifically validated. Today the LearningGames
weeks,” says Sparling. Each child had an individualized series, which still comprises 200 games, is published in
prescription of educational activities, or “games,” that five volumes. It is in wide use and published in English,
were incorporated into his or her day. Activities focused French, and Spanish editions.
on social, emotional, cognitive, and physical areas of The format makes LearningGames readily adaptable to
development but gave particular emphasis to language. modes of intervention such as preschool, group daycare,
“We told the teachers that every game is a language family daycare homes, parent groups, and home visitation.
game,” says Sparling. “Even if the activity focused mostly On one side of each page is a picture with brief text
on motor skills, the teachers still needed to talk to the explaining how to do the activity and why. On the back of
children and be aware of their own language. They needed the page, there is a more detailed description of the game
to keep feeding language to the children and making sure including different ways to play it, what to expect from
that they understood. Early on children are not verbal but the child, and more detail on why it is important to the
rather point and make little sounds. But soon they respond child’s development.
with words. It was important to be putting language in
children and getting language out all the time.” Assessments over Time
Sparling and Lewis encouraged teachers to focus on Children who participated in the early intervention were
individuals. “Teachers thought systematically about each monitored over time. They had higher cognitive test
child, did some planning, and wrote down the activities scores starting in toddler years and continuing to age 21.
they were going to do per the individual child,” says The cognitive and academic benefits from this program
Sparling. “That was part of our philosophy—that teachers are stronger than those from most other early childhood
needed to get planning down to the individual child as programs. It is the only early childhood program that has
opposed to just planning for the general classroom. statistically significant cognitive benefits extending into
“A research assistant took data on each game, such as young adulthood. Enhanced language development appears
the number of times the child wanted to play the game,” to have been instrumental in raising cognitive test scores.
says Sparling. “The research assistant also timed how long
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Participants were assessed at the treatment endpoint, They were more likely to have a skilled job. They were
8 years, and followed up at 12 and 15 years. At all these older on average when their first child was born.
times, iq scores for the children who received the birth- “A bigger percentage of the kids in the daycare
to-age-5 Abecedarian intervention were higher than those program went to college,” says Bynum. “Their parents
of the randomly assigned control group. The treated have commented to me about the good beginning their
children also scored higher on achievement tests in math children got here [with the Abecedarian project]. They are
and reading during elementary and secondary school successful. One college graduate has gotten two teacher-of-
years. They also had lower levels of grade retention and the-year awards, each at a different school.”
placements in special education classes—a long-term cost The Abecedarian Project also positively affected the
savings to their families and schools. teenage mothers who had children in the study. By the time
Measures of intelligence and achievement at age 21 their children were 4½, these mothers were more likely to
demonstrated a similar pattern. Remarkably, 104 of the have finished high school and undergone post-secondary
original 111 children were still participating in the study, training. They were more likely to be self-supporting and
thanks to Carrie Bynum, who managed to track down less likely to have more offspring. Additional training,
participants. “I’ve been in Chapel Hill for 53 years,” she employment experience, and education led to increased
says. “I knew them in church, Girl Scouts, and other earnings and decreased reliance on social assistance.
groups. My path crossed theirs. I can find them. My Investigators are now concluding the age 30 follow-up
hardest job was locating the control group children. But of this sample.
their families helped me out, and I found all of them.”
The young adult data showed that the children in the The Payoff
experimental group were more likely to have attended a A cost analysis of the Abecedarian Project indicated that
four-year college than the children in the control group. benefits are worth the five-year investment (about $13,900
per child per year) in small class sizes, well-trained and paid
Photo: FPG Archives teachers, and an innovative curriculum. Comparing the fpg
preschool and control groups, researchers observed that:
• Children who were enrolled in the Abecedarian
programs are projected to make $145,000 more than
control children over their lifetimes.
• Mothers of children who were enrolled can expect to
earn about $135,000 more than mothers of control
children over their lifetimes.
• School districts can project saving on average more
than $11,000 per child because participants are less
likely than control children to require special or
remedial education.
• Participants were slightly less likely than control
children to smoke, indicating better health benefits
and longer lives, with cost benefits estimated at
$167,700 per person.
Carrie Bynum plays with FPG friends in the 1970s. As
the study's family coordinator, she played a pivotal
role in the Abecedarian Project. Her mix of warmth
and professionalism was critical in keeping up with
the children as they grew up. Bynum received the
C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award in
recognition of “unusual, meritorious, or superior
contribution” to the UNC-Chapel Hill. Bynum clearly
demonstrated all three qualities in her dedication to
the Abecedarian project.
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• With welfare reform moving more parents into the
workforce, more children at poverty level will require
care outside the home. They need access to high-
standard, affordable child care.
• Quality care requires sufficient well-trained staff
to ensure that every child receives the kind of
appropriate, individualized attention provided by the
Abecedarian model.
• Child care officials should be aware of the importance
of quality care from the very first months of life.
The Abecedarian Project represents a revolutionary
idea in early childhood education. Its findings have been
instrumental in demonstrating that very early education for
at-risk children is possible and that it can have a positive
and long-lasting effect on the course of development. The
future will reveal the degree to which the general public
and national, state, and local leaders agree that very early
education is valuable and worth funding. |ed|
To Learn More
Burchinal, M. R., Campbell, F. A., Bryant, D. M., Wasik, B. H., & Ramey,
C. T. (1997). Early intervention and mediating processes in cognitive
performance of children of low-income African American families. Child
Development, 68, 935-954.
Campbell, F. A., Pungello, E. P., Miller-Johnson, S., Burchinal, M., & Ramey,
C. T. (2001). The development of cognitive and academic abilities: Growth
curves from an early childhood educational experiment. Developmental
Even after 20 years, Abecedarian researchers
Psychology, 37, 231-242.
continue to see positive effects in terms of education
and earning potential. Participants tended to be older Campbell, F. A., & Ramey, C. T. (1995). Cognitive and school outcomes for
when their first child was born. high-risk African-American students at middle adolescence: Positive
effects of early intervention. American Educational Research Journal, 32,
743-772.
Impact on Policy
Campbell, F. A. & Ramey, C. T. (1994). Effects of early intervention on
The Abecedarian Project has far-reaching implications,
intellectual and academic achievement: A follow-up study of children from
particularly for policy makers who want to affect the low-income families. Child Development, 65, 684-698.
lives of children from low-income families as well as for
Campbell, F. A., Ramey, C. T., Pungello, E. P., Sparling, J., & Miller-Johnson,
administrators of child care programs. In the U.S. children S. (2002). Early childhood education: Young adult outcomes from the
are more likely to live in poverty than any other age group. Abecedarian project. Applied Developmental Science, 6, 42-57.
And poverty rates are climbing. Minority children are Ramey, C. T. & Campbell, F. A. (1991). Poverty, early childhood education,
three times more likely to grow up in poverty, which has and academic competence: The Abecedarian experiment. In A. Huston
a negative impact on cognitive development and academic (Ed.), Children reared in poverty (pp. 190-221). New York: Cambridge
University Press.
performance. When these children do not fulfill their
highest potential, society loses valuable human resources. Ramey, C. T., & Campbell, F. A. (1984). Preventive education for high-risk
children: Cognitive consequences of the Carolina Abecedarian Project.
Several major policy challenges include the following:
American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 88, 515-523.
• A high-quality educational environment from early
infancy is critical, as this is the age when learning Ramey, C. T., Campbell, F. A., Burchinal, M., Skinner, M. L., Gardner, D. M., &
Ramey, S. L. (2000). Persistent effects of early intervention on high-risk
begins and upon which all later learning is built.
children and their mothers. Applied Developmental Science, 4, 2-14.
Every child deserves a start in an environment that is
safe, healthy, emotionally supportive, and cognitively
stimulating. Website
www.fpg.unc.edu/~abc/
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