ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the evidence on interventions designed to alter the child welfare trajectory of very young children and the literature on interventions designed to alter the developmental trajectory of children involved with child welfare services. M. Black and colleagues trained community workers to provide home visiting services to families of infants diagnosed with non-organic failure to thrive, a condition emanating from parental emotional neglect. Preschoolers would benefit from child development programs in which there is a center-based component. Parent education programs are arguably the most common intervention strategy for the prevention of child maltreatment. Prevention science is a burgeoning field that is built upon a solid conceptual and empirical foundation. The quality of prevention programs can be constantly enhanced, moving them toward their ultimate goal of improving the well-being of young children and their families. Most prevention programs for families of maltreated children are focused on physical abuse.
