Publications Review Guidelines

Dear Visitors:
Federal funding for this website ended in 2003, therefore few materials have been added since that time. Fortunately, there is continued interest in culturally and appropriate materials, curriculum, and programs. Because of this, we have allowed this site to remain as an archive. Please feel free to use this site, but recognize that it is no longer current.

The following Review Guidelines are intended to help service providers and individuals involved in personnel preparation determine the congruence between the beliefs, values, and practices of the individuals in your community and current recommended practices in early childhood/special education. The Review Guidelines will first help you consider the overall effectiveness of presentation of a material. Next, questions follow which pertain specifically to the content area of Caregiver-Child Interaction.

It is important to realize that no material is likely to match the exact needs of individuals in your community. Therefore, in many instances, you may wish to make some simple adaptations to the materials before using them.

A separate set of Review Guidelines is available to help select materials that have been translated from one language to another. In addition, other suggestions for choosing materials are available on the CLAS Web site (http://clas.illinois.edu). It is our hope that you may use these Review Guidelines to engage in meaningful dialogue with families and colleagues in your community, as you decide which materials to use in your early childhood setting.

Effectiveness of Presentation

Please respond to all that apply.

Clarity

1. Is the purpose of the material clear?
2. Is the presentation of the information easy to follow?
3. If there are directions on how to use the material, are they clearly stated?
4. Does the material include an effective explanation of technical terms or jargon?
5. Does the language in the material acknowledge diversity (e.g., family structures, multi-generations, disabilities, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, religion, etc.)?
6. Is the format (e.g., print, audio, video, etc.) appropriate for the intended users of this material?
7. Are contact agencies or persons for accessing additional information or support easily identifiable?

Comprehension Level

• Easy = mainly simple sentences with minimal or no technical jargon;
• Average = a mix of simple and complex sentences with some technical jargon (e.g., USA Today);
• Difficult = mainly complex sentences with a lot of technical jargon or discipline-specific terms (e.g., College-level text or New York Times).

 

1. For printed materials, the reading level of the material is:
   Easy | Average | Difficult | N/A
2. For video and audio materials, the comprehension level of the material is:
   Easy | Average | Difficult | N/A

Graphics, Illustrations and Photos

Do the graphics:

 

1. Represent a non-stereotypical view of cultural (e.g., contemporary dress) and linguistic groups?
2. Represent a wide variety of groups (e.g., disabilities, gender, race, generation)?
3. Enhance the materials (e.g., photo prints and designs are appropriate and of high quality)?

Establishing a Healthy Relationship Between Providers and Families

To what extent does the material …

 

1. Emphasize the importance of providers and families establishing a comfortable relationship (e.g., understanding values and beliefs)?
2. Encourage the provision of services in the families' preferred language or through the assistance of a qualified translator/ interpreter who can serve as a cultural mediator?
3. Provide guidance to the service providers and caregivers (e.g., parent, other members of the household, childcare providers) for sharing assumptions and expectations for service delivery?
4. Acknowledge the importance of employing service providers who respect and are knowledgeable about the cultures and languages of the families served?

Intervention Strategies and Developmental Contexts

To what extent does the material …

 

1. Suggest intervention strategies and materials that can be embedded within the family's routines and environments?
2. Suggest ways to obtain information and build on caregiver’s beliefs about his or her own role in supporting the child’s development?
3. Encourage service providers to incorporate the unique preferences and abilities of the caregivers and their child into the intervention?
4. Suggest ways to incorporate multiple important caregivers into the interaction?
5. Acknowledge the potential role or involvement of siblings in the intervention?
6. Respect the caregiver role by:

 

1. Emphasizing the caregiver’s sense of competence in interacting with his/her child?
2. Creating a low-risk, non-threatening environment that allows service providers to support caregiver-child interaction?
3. Acknowledging the variety of roles and responsibilities the caregiver is comfortable assuming?
4. Using games, songs, fingerplays, or rhymes familiar to the family’s culture?

Model Effectiveness

To what extent does the material …

1. Identify potential short-term outcomes for both the caregiver and/or the child?
2. Identify potential long-term outcomes for both the caregiver and/or the child?
3. Specify the cultural and linguistic groups with whom the approach has been used?

Evaluating Impact and Appropriateness of Intervention and Services

To what extent does the material …

 

1. Encourage providers to systematically evaluate the appropriateness of the interventions with families based on their changing needs and preferences?
2. Suggest ways of ensuring that outcomes are important and meaningful to the families as well as the service providers?
3. Include a variety of options for gathering information from families (e.g., interviews, observations, checklists, etc.) that respect families’ cultural and linguistic background and considers families’ level of acculturation?

The following two questions are intended to deepen the analysis of the ways materials address issues of diversity. In some cases, these issues may have been addressed in the preceding questions.

Does the material acknowledge and address complex and sometimes subtle aspects of diversity as they relate to caregiver-child interaction, such as:

 

1. Power (refers to the division of members of society into levels with unequal access to resources, knowledge, and authority)
2. Racism (refers to systems advantage based on race)
3. Prejudice (refers to an adverse judgment or opinion based on preconceived beliefs and ideas about different groups)
4. Socio-Economic Class (refers to the division of society into levels with unequal wealth and prestige)

Are there any spoken or unspoken assumptions, values, or beliefs in this material that could conflict with the delivery of culturally and linguistically appropriate services (e.g., assuming all parents view themselves as advocates or equal partners)?

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
College of Education
Early Childhood and Parenting Collaborative
Contact CLAS

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