This reference work breaks new ground as an electronic resource. Utterly comprehensive, it serves as a repository of knowledge in the field as well as a frequently updated conduit of new material long before it finds its way into standard textbooks.

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.

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.

TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1. Basic perspectives: biases and format / S. D. Dixon and M. T. Stein. 2. Setting the stage: theories and concepts of child development / S. D. Dixon. 3. Interviewing in a pediatric setting / M. T. Stein. 4. Designing an office with a developmental perspective / M. T. Stein. 5. The prenatal visit: making an alliance with the family / S. D. Dixon. 6. The newborn examination: innate readiness for interaction with the environment / S. D. Dixon. 7. The hospital discharge examination: getting to know the individual child / M. T. Stein. 8. The special care nursery: unlocking the behavior of the vulnerable neonate / S. D. Dixon and P. Gorski. 9. Five days to four weeks: making a place in the family / P. Kaiser and S. D. Dixon. 10. Five weeks to two months: getting on track / M. T. Stein. 11. Three to four months: having fun with the picture book baby / S. D. Dixon. 12. Five to Six months: reaching out to play / S. D. Dixon, M. J. Hennessy, and P. Kaiser. 13. Seven to eight months: separation and strangers / P. Kaiser and S. D. Dixon. 14. Nine to ten months: active exploration in a safe environment / P. Kaiser and S. D. Dixon. 15. One year: one giant step forward / S. D. Dixon and M. J. Hennessy. 16. Eighteen months: asserting oneself, a push-pull process / M. T. Stein. 17. Two years: learning the rules language and cognition / S. D. Dixon, H. Feldman, and E. Bates. 18. Two and one-half to Three years: emergence of magic / S. D. Dixon. 19. Four years: clearer sense of self / N. Putnam and S. D. Dixon. 20. Five years: entering school / P. Nader. 21. Six years: Learning to use symbols / N. Putnam and M. T. Stein. 22. Seven to ten years: growth and competency / N. Putnam. 23. Seven to Ten years: the world of the elementary school child / R. D. Wells and M. T. Stein. 24. Overview of adolescence / M. E. Felice. 25. Eleven to thirteen years: early adolescence - age of rapid changes / M. E. Felice. 26. Fourteen to sixteen years: mid-adolescence the dating game / M. E. Felice. 27. Seventeen to twenty-one years: late adolescence / L. I. Rice and M. E. Felice. 28. Special Families / R. D. Wells, N. Putnam, and M. T. Stein. 29. Childrens encounters with illness: hospitalization and procedures / M. T. Stein. 30. Child advocacy: a pediatric perspective / M. T. Stein, S. D. Dixon, and J. E. Schanberger. 31. The use of drawings by children in the pediatric office / J. B. Welsh. 32. Books for parents, videos for kids: an annotated bibliography / P. Kaiser, M. Caffery, H. J. Brehm, S. D. Dixon, M. T. Stein, and M. E. Felice.

First published in 1961, Sidney Bijou's Behavior Analysis of Child Development is a seminal work in the field of child development. Intended for the student with a limited background in psychology who is embarking on a study of child development, the book offers a concise introduction to the natural scientific approach to child psychology. It defines basic behavioral terms and principles, and includes many examples of the application of these principles to the understanding of children. In addition to its contribution to the field of child development, this book offers an easily readable and understandable account of the greater topic of behavior analysis itself. Readers may apply the overview presented here to other topics in wider study human behavioral development and learning.

Author Henry D. Schlinger, Jr., provides the first text to demonstrate how behavior analysis-a natural science approach to human behavior-can be used to understand existing research in child development. The text presents a behavior-analytic interpretation of fundamental research in mainstream developmental psychology, offering a unified theoretical understanding of child development. Chapters examine mnemonic, motor, perceptual, cognitive, language, and social development.

Volume 39 of the Advances in Child Development and Behavior series is concerned with Developmental Disorders and Interventions. This volume provides an overview of contemporary research into cognitive, neurodevelopmental and genetic disorders of learning. The social, emotional and cognitive functioning of children with William's syndrome, Down syndrome, Fragile X and autism, reading difficulties, mathematical difficulties and working memory problems are discussed by some of the leading researchers in the field. Within each chapter, the authors consider current interventions and methods for remediating difficulties associated with each disorder, which will be of particular interest to clinical and educational practitioners. - Goes in depth to address contemporary research into neurodevelopmental and genetic disorders of learning - A necessary resource for both psychology researchers and students - The authors are either leaders in their chosen fields or have worked in some of the leading research teams in the world - This volume covers a broad range of developmental disorders of learning, from genetic disorders such as Down syndrome to cognitive problems such as poor working memory function. The focus on interventions within each chapter will be of particular interest both to academics and clinical and educational practitioners

Electronic version of 2000 text.

How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

Irrespective of theoretical orientation, families matter. Families are the entity in which children are introduced to words, objects, shapes, and colors. Families are the people related in a myriad of conventional and unconventional ways that clothe, bathe, and feed its biological and acquired offspring. Influenced by race, ethnicity, income, and education, families relate not only to each other within the unit but to others in the neighborhood, the community, and beyond. This book is about families and their children. This book is about those times when the family unit experiences distress. This distress may be found in the serious illness of a child or a parent. It may be the result of a reconfiguration of the family as in divorce and remarriage. Or it may involve the harming of a family member sexually or physically. In this volume, the authors explore what family means today, what functions it serves, and those circumstances that can make family life painful. Importantly, the authors provide readers with clearly written information drawn from the most recent scientific investigations suggesting how the topics in this volume might be addressed to either ease that discomfort (treatment) or prevent its occurrence.