The Early Childhood and Parenting (ECAP) Collaborative is home to more than a dozen projects that focus on educating and raising young children. ECAP hosts research, technical assistance, and service projects.
Project Information
ECAP
Projects
- Center for Evidence-Based
Practice: Young Children with Challenging Behaviors
Web Site: http://challengingbehavior.fmhi.usf.edu/The Center for Evidence-Based Practice: Young Children with Challenging
Behavior is funded by the U.S. Department of
Education, Office
of Special Education Programs to raise the awareness and implementation
of positive, evidence-based practices and to build an enhanced and more
accessible database to support those practices.
- Center on the Social and
Emotional Foundations for Early Learning
Web Site: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csefel/The national Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early
Learning is focused on strengthening the capacity of child care and Head
Start to improve the social and emotional outcomes of young children.
The Center will develop and disseminate evidence-based, user-friendly
information to help early childhood educators meet the needs of the growing
number of children with challenging behaviors and mental health needs
in child care and Head Start programs. The Center focuses on: (1) promoting
the social and emotional development of children as a means of preventing
challenging behaviors; (2) collaborating with existing training and technical
assistance (T/TA) providers for the purpose of ensuring the implementation
and sustainability of practices at the local level; (3) engaging in a
comprehensive, culturally sensitive approach that is inclusive of and
responsive to the needs of programs, families, other professionals, and
communities; (4) providing ongoing identification of training needs and
preferred delivery formats of local programs and T/TA providers; and (5)
disseminating evidence-based practices. The Center is a multi-university,
multi-organization collaboration of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
University of Colorado at Denver, University of Connecticut, University
of South Florida, Education Development Corporation, and Tennessee Voices
for Children.
- Clearinghouse on Early Education and Parenting
Web Site: http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/The Clearinghouse on Early Education and Parenting (CEEP), part of the Early Childhood and Parenting (ECAP) Collaborative at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the successor to the federally funded ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education (ERIC/EECE). CEEP maintains an archive of ERIC/EECE Digests and publications; produces a bilingual (Spanish and English), peer-reviewed, Internet-only journal titled Early Childhood Research & Practice; operates more than two dozen Web sites for local, state, and national early childhood projects and organizations; supports Internet discussion groups on topics related to early childhood education, professional development, and parenting; and develops databases for funding partners. CEEP also produces publications and videos on early education and parenting (often in both English and Spanish). Dr. Lilian G. Katz and Dianne Rothenberg are co-directors of CEEP.
- Culturally and Linguistically
Appropriate Services Early Childhood Research Institute
Web Site: http://clas.uiuc.edu/The Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Early Childhood
Research Institute was originally (1998-2001) a federally funded, collaborative
effort of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Council
for Exceptional Children, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the ERIC
Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education, and the ERIC
Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education. The CLAS Institute
identifies, evaluates, and promotes effective and appropriate early intervention
practices and preschool practices that are sensitive and respectful to
children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
The CLAS Institute is currently supported by a grant from the National
Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC)
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- Early Childhood Research
& Practice
Web Site: http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/Early Childhood Research
& Practice (ECRP) is a peer-reviewed electronic journal sponsored
by ECAP that covers topics related to the growth, learning, development,
care, and education of children from birth to approximately age 8.
- Illinois Early Childhood Asset Map
Web site: http://iecam.crc.uiuc.edu/IECAM provides data on early care and education services in the state of
Illinois (outside of the City of Chicago) and on the demographic make-up of the
state.
- Illinois Early Learning
Project
Web Site: http://illinoisearlylearning.org/The Illinois Early Learning Project provides evidence-based, reliable information on early care and education for parents, caregivers, and teachers of young children in Illinois. The Web site offers printable tip sheets for caregivers and parents, resources for implementing the Illinois Early Learning Standards, frequently asked questions (and their answers), a customized question-answering service, a statewide calendar of events for parents and caregivers, an easy-to-use database of links to "the best of the Web" on topics related to early care and education, and periodic “Ask An Expert” events.
- IllinoisParents.org
Web Site: http://illinoisparents.orgIllinoisParents.org provides access to resources for parents in the state of Illinois. The resources include statewide resources and resources organized by county. IllinoisParents.org is supported by the Academic Development Institute in Lincoln, IL.
- Mothers' Perceptions of
Interactions with Babies with and without Disabilities in Different Cultures
Web Site: none Many approaches to
early intervention have as an important focus the interactions between
parents and children. However, whereas views of appropriate parent-child
interaction may vary significantly across cultures, most approaches to
early intervention are based on research with individuals of Western European
descent. The purpose of this research project is to learn more about how
mothers from different cultural backgrounds perceive their interactions
with their babies, and whether perceptions vary depending on whether their
babies have a disability. Thus far, researchers have conducted interviews
with parents from the United States who are Caucasian and African American.
The primary themes examined thus far have been the types of benefits that
parents perceive to derive from parent-child interaction and the ways
in which they perceive themselves contributing to those benefits during
the course of the interaction.
- The Relationships Project
Web Site: none The Relationships Project, an 18-month project funded by the Family Resiliency Institute at the University of Illinois, is a collaborative project among faculty in Early Childhood Special Education and Social Work, and the Crisis Nursery, a community program whose primary mission is to prevent child abuse and neglect. The project will build on a model of early intervention, PIWI (Parents Interacting with Infants), and will infuse PIWI principles and practices throughout three specific Crisis Nursery program components. The PIWI model, developed within the context of parent-child groups for all parents and children, will be evaluated with this specific population. Expansions to other contexts including home visits and child care will also be evaluatedContact:
Jeanette McCollum, jmccollu@uiuc.edu, Rm. 61 Children's Research Center, 51 Gerty Dr.., Champaign, IL 61820, 217-333-4123, FAX 217-244-7732
- SPARK: Skills Promoted through
Arts, Reading, and Knowledge (Directed Research Project)
Web Site: http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/sped/SPARK/The purpose of SPARK
is to address the needs of an increasingly culturally diverse population
by providing teachers of young children with: (1) a story-based creative
arts curriculum, derived from a variety of cultural and ethnic traditions;
(2) a developmentally and individually appropriate curriculum process
that can be applied in a variety of settings to meet the needs of children
with diverse skill levels; (3) a system of inservice training and ongoing
support to enhance the implementation of the model; and (4) materials
and guidelines to enable families to support their child's classroom experiences.
The project is evaluating program outcomes at the child, teacher, and
administrative level as well as the range of adaptations made by teaching
staff to aspects of the model. This information is being gathered through
the use of weekly teacher logs, interviews, observation data, child progress
data, and surveys.
- The Stories Project
Web Site: noneThe Stories Project is designed to evaluate the effects of different
approaches to instruction on the early literacy skills of preschool children.
As part of this project, researchers will be working with approximately
36 teachers and over 300 children. In addition to studying the effects
of these interventions on young children, researchers will be examining
a collaborative model for training teachers to use effective strategies
for promoting early literacy skills. This three-year project is funded
by the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of
Education.
- University Primary School
Web Site: http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/ups/University Primary School (UPS) is an early childhood gifted education program
that serves children ages 3-7. The school is located in the Children's Research
Center on Gerty Drive in Champaign and the Colonel Wolfe School, also in
Champaign. UPS is affiliated with the Department of Special Education in
the College of Education at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.
Children must be 3 by July 1 for the preschool classroom and 5 by September
1 to be considered for kindergarten enrollment. The school comprises one
preschool classroom (ages 3-4) and two combined K-1 classrooms. Each classroom
enrolls approximately 25 children, with a head teacher, an assistant teacher,
and student interns. The school is supported by tuition and fees, private
donations, and fundraising events.
ECAP Web Partners
