Despite the increased availability of federal programs for low-income children and families, including Early Head Start-Child Care (EHS-CC) Partnerships, the development of the nation’s youngest and most vulnerable citizens continues to be compromised. While programs like EHS center-based services represent an opportunity for targeted, high quality services, they require significant enhancements to bolster positive developmental trajectories for disadvantaged children. Specifically, an integrated intervention approach is needed to support, reinforce, and maintain children’s language and social-emotional skills. 

This project proposes to implement and evaluate the Getting Ready 0-3 (GR03) intervention in collaboration with rural EHS partner agencies. GR03 is an inventive, evidence-based intervention that strengthens the relationships children have with adults as well as partnerships between parents and other providers responsible for the care of their children. In GR03 teachers and parents identify and build on a child’s strengths; establish developmental targets; and co- create meaningful, consistent home-center plans to support developmentally appropriate targets. 

The project will be conducted in three phases:

Phase 1 will serve as a pilot to develop training and implementation protocols and assess fit within EHS partner agencies. This phase will involve two EHS center-based teachers and two families per teacher. 

Phase 2 will consist of a randomized cluster trial with repeated measures design to examine the impacts of GR03 on parent- and teacher-child relationships, child-focused adult parenting and teaching practices, and parent-teacher partnerships. Phase 2 will include three cohorts with a total of 60 EHS teachers and 240 children/families. 

Phase 3 will focus on sustainability. The research team will work closely with EHS partners to determine needed resources to sustain GR03 training, support, and implementation. The proposed approach includes systematic attention to sustainability and capacity building for rural EHS partner programs, including their intentional and planned involvement in all phases of the study.