The Harris Program for Infants, Toddlers and their Families

Head: Prof. Esther Adi-Japha

About us

The Harris Program for Infants, Toddlers and their Families at the Faculty of Education at Bar-Ilan University, founded in 1996 by the late Prof. Pnina Klein, is an academic professional body that mediates theoretical, research-based, avnd up-todate knowledge in the field of early childhood development and pedagogy, and daily application in working with infants. toddlers and their families. The program aims to promote the quality of care and education that infants, toddlers, and preschool children receive. Our long-term goal is to support the optimal development and mental health of each infant and toddler in Israel, including those from low-income groups, diverse ethnic groups, minority populations, immigrants, and children with special needs.

Our short-term goals are:

• To develop, implement, and assess early intervention and prevention programs for at-risk infants and toddlers and their families.
• To promote the quality of education and care provided to infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners by providing interdisciplinary knowledge and training professionals and caregivers.
• To initiate, design and support applied research on infant and toddler care and education provided in daycare, at home, and in community centers.
• To promote the dissemination of information and knowledge on infant and toddler mental health, development, and educare through conferences, workshops, a website, and publications.

Principal activities and achievements

The Harris program at Bar-Ilan University includes two units:

• Clinical-developmental unit 
• Training center for enhancing educational quality

Through these units, the program provides a service to a variety of population groups in Israel by operating intervention programs, guidance, training, and counseling for parents and professionals as well as for organizations, municipalities, and policymakers. 

We developed a set of specialized courses and intervention programs. The MISC-SR (More Intelligent and Sensitive Child – Self Regulation) Mediational Intervention for sensitizing caregivers and enhancing self-regulation for clinical professional staff (Jaegermann & Klein, 2010); and the MISC – DAP (More Intelligent and Sensitive Child - Developmentally Appropriate Practice) based interventions as well as the early childhood curriculum program (Shohet, Givon, & Adi-Japha, 2021) for early childhood and care caregivers.

• The Clinical-developmental unit, headed by Dr. Nurit Jaegermann and Ayelet David is active at the university clinic and in various projects in the community with populations at risk, for example: Well Baby clinics and the Shekma Ramat Gan Preschool Center. The intervention program taught and implemented in the unit (the MISC-SR) is focused on promoting self-regulation abilities and the quality of parent-child interaction with preschool children with developmental challenges. Courses with the intervention program are given throughout the country.
• The Training Center for Enhancing Educational Quality unit, headed by Ravit Rosenfeld-Kraft is active at the university and in various projects in the country with out-of-home education and care staff, for example in the Tel-Aviv municipality. The intervention programs taught and implemented in the unit (The MISC-DAP, and ECEC curriculum) are focused on promoting the quality of care, based on the developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) program.

Our Team

Clinical-developmental unit: Dr. Nurit Jaegermann and Ayelet David who are both experienced Occupational Therapist (OT). 

Training Center for Enhancing Educational Quality: Ravit Rosenfeld-Kraft who is an OT and expert on counselling early childhood education and care staff.

Community Engagement

Clinical-developmental unit 

• On going project in Well Baby clinics, Ministry of Health 
• The Shekma Ramat Gan Preschool Center for children with special needs 
• Working with children with special needs and their parents who were evacuated from their homes in the south and north of the country and live in Kfar Ha’Maccabiah during the current Iron Sword war. The team continues to follow and guide some of the families even after they have returned to their homes. 
• Continuous training on a weekly basis for therapeutic staff at Matia (Ministry of Education) in Netivot. 
• Training on mutual regulation in parent-child interaction for teams from the health professions - Ministry of Education North Region. 
• Nationwide theoretical and practical training for developmental occupation clinics of general health services. 
• Project of playgrounds in the Takuma region (surrounding Gaza) - training of professional staff to work with parents and preschool children in playgrounds (Ministry of Health). 
• Continue training for the staff of the rehabilitation day care centers of the Alvin association in the north of the country (toddlers with special needs). The association introduced the intervention model to work with parents within the dormitory.

Training Center for Enhancing Educational Quality

• Development-appropriate practice courses operated on two levels: one through local authorities for instructors of that authority (financed by the authority, e.g., TelAviv, Ramat Negev) and the other, in the private sector for instructors, managers and supervisors who wanted to pay for the subject. 
• MISC-DAP courses - a basic course and an advanced course in mediation in birth-three settings were given this year to managers and counselors: Or Yehuda municipality. 
• Training in the Arab Society for principals of educational settings operating without a license: Kfar Qasim, Kfar Bara and Jaljulia. 
• Development of tools and training for daycare administrators that focus on identifying managing risk situations in today’s daycare centers in Israel: The south district Ministry of Education and Or Yehuda municipality. 
• Establishing and leading a group of supervisor supervision colleagues in the local authorities (Tel Aviv-Jaffa (guidance of about 65 guides), Givatayim, Hod Hasharon, Tel Mond, Hadera, Or Yehuda, Hebal Modi’in Regional Council, Kfar Saba, Nesher, Afula, Bat Yam, Ramat Negev Regional Council , Yeruham, Dimona and Kiryat Ono.
• Writing a chapter on early childhood and care staff training in the Ministry of Education’s Department of Procedures for operating day care centers

International Engagement

The Harris program at Bar-Ilan university works under the Harris Foundation. The Harris Foundation is a philanthropic foundation that supports leading university teams throughout the US and Israel who are engaged in promoting the mental health of young children and their families to ensure better emotional wellbeing and developmental outcomes. 

The Harris program is involved in implementing the MISC program in different regions of Africa (NIH funded project, as part of a collaboration with Prof. Carla Sharp, Huston University, USA)

Impact

Numerous publications by the Late Prof. Klein, Prof. Korat who headed the Harris program 2015-2024, and now by Prof. Esther Adi-Japha

2024-2027	Ministry of Education  Evaluation of a Diploma course for daycare caregivers  PI: Prof. Yair Ziv (Haifa University) and Prof. Esther Adi-Japha
2022-2023	National Insurance Research Funds  Early Childhood Allowances and Academic Achievements: The Impact of Allowance Cut in 2003 on Meitzav Test Scores.  PI: Prof. Esther Adi-Japha AND Prof. Yossi Shavit (Tel-Aviv University)
2022-2023	Ministry of Education  Assessment of the instability in early childhood education settings due to the Corona epidemic: Implications for education staff, parents, and children.  PI: Dr. Anat Moed (Bar-Ilan University) and Prof. Esther Adi-Japha

Contact Information

avital.weiss@biu.ac.il