The MOM Program: 5 Year Follow-up Study of a Home Visiting Program at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

The MOM Program Continuation - 5 Year Follow-up

The purpose of the MOM Program Continuation is to promote child development by helping families become more competent in accessing and using available health, developmental and educational resources. The program focuses are childhood immunizations, Early Intervention services, lead screening, Early Head Start and Head Start enrollment. The Intervention consists of frequent phone calls and home visits to encourage mothers to have their babies immunized on schedule and to participate in needed developmental and educational services. The program seeks to fill the gap between children's need for services and mothers' ability to assure their children's participation in those services.

The MOM Program Continuation builds on the work of The MOM Program, a 3 year randomized intervention. The premise of the MOM Program was that professional support through home visits and frequent phone contacts would improve children's cognitive and behavioral development, ultimately improving their early educational success. The children were enrolled in the MOM Program at birth. The MOM Program Continuation provides continued intervention for the children and mothers of the original cohort to assure that the children are prepared for kindergarten entry at 5 years of age and to evaluate the children's cognitive and behavioral outcomes at age 5 years. The program will also create a longitudinal database to study the linkages between maternal cognitive ability and child cognitive, educational, and behavioral outcomes through entry into school.

Inclusion Criteria: Previous enrollment in The MOM Program; child age of 5 years (plus or minus 3 months); willingness to come to office for follow-up assessment visit; parental consent and child assent.

Exclusion Criteria: None.