Building Early Social And Emotional Relationships With Infants And Toddlers

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the process of building healthy early social and emotional relationships with infants from a developmental perspective. The book synthesizes current research on the contextual influences of attachment, family relationships, and caregiving practices on social-emotional development. Chapters examine the processes of socioemotional development—particularly in relationships with parents, other family members, and peers—and identify areas for promoting healthy attachments and resilience, improving caregiving skills, and intervening in traumatic and stressful situations. Chapters also present empirically-supported intervention and prevention programs focused on building early relationships from birth through three years of age. The book concludes with future directions for supporting infant mental health and its vital importance as a component of research, clinical and educational practice, and child and family policy. Topics featured in this book include: The effect of prenatal and neonatal attachment on social and emotional development. The impact of primary relationships and early experiences in toddlerhood. Toddler autonomy and peer awareness in the context of families and child care. Supporting early social and emotional relationships through The Legacy for ChildrenTM Intervention. How to build early relationship programming across various cultures. Building Early Social and Emotional Relationships with Infants and Toddlers is a must-have reference for researchers, clinicians and professionals, and graduate students in the fields of infant mental health, developmental psychology, pediatrics, public health, family studies, and early childhood education.

Early Childhood Development: A Multicultural Perspective, 6/e addresses both typical and atypical child development from birth through age eight. This text highlights the diversity of child development, preparing professionals to meet the unique needs of children from a wide variety of backgrounds.

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

The Relationship Worlds of Infants and Toddlers explores the concept of relationships as a core element of early childhood education and care. Taking as its starting point that children from birth to three learn and develop in a network of relationships, it examines what these relationships look and feel like, how they can be fostered and why they are important for children, educators and families who are involved in early years settings. In particular, it examines: Which kinds of relationships are important in early education and care settings? How can we understand the characteristics and meaning of these relationships for individuals and groups? How can we use our understandings to build relationships in early childhood programmes that benefit children, families and educators? The authors approach the topic of relationships in infant-toddler early childhood and care settings from a range of different perspectives. Drawing on real-world examples from their own research, they show how - by understanding the diverse features and functions of the many relationships at play in infant-toddler early childhood programmes - it is possible to create opportunities to strengthen these relationships and enhance the learning opportunities that these relationships provide. Compelling reading for both early years students and professionals this book provides a valuable resource with which to approach the diversity and dynamics of infant and toddler relationships.

Undertaken at orphanages in Russia, this study tests the role of early social and emotion experience in the development of children. Children were exposed to either multiple caregivers who performed routine duties in a perfunctory manner with minimal interaction or fewer caregivers who were trained to engage in warm, responsive, and developmentally appropriate interactions during routine care. Engaged and responsive caregivers were associated with substantial improvements in child development and these findings provide a rationale for making similar improvements in other institutions, programs, and organizations.

Translates research on cognitive, social, and emotional development in the early years into the language of daily caregiving and teaching. This book gives trainers the information and tools they need to teach infant-toddler caregivers how to build responsive relationships with very young children and their families.

Focus on the wonder of learning with infants, toddlers, and twos. Use sensitive and responsive interactions and curriculum planning that support their development as effective communicators, problem solvers, and creative thinkers.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.