Let's Talk Toddlers


Book Description

This is a user-friendly book that speaks to the realities, challenges, and needs of daily life with rambunctious, enthusiastic, unpredictable toddlers in group settings, thus increasing the quality of toddler care. This book highlights informative and real-life examples, with immediate takeaway action steps that detail solutions and resources for practice.




Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children


Book Description

While most children learn to read fairly well, there remain many young Americans whose futures are imperiled because they do not read well enough to meet the demands of our competitive, technology-driven society. This book explores the problem within the context of social, historical, cultural, and biological factors. Recommendations address the identification of groups of children at risk, effective instruction for the preschool and early grades, effective approaches to dialects and bilingualism, the importance of these findings for the professional development of teachers, and gaps that remain in our understanding of how children learn to read. Implications for parents, teachers, schools, communities, the media, and government at all levels are discussed. The book examines the epidemiology of reading problems and introduces the concepts used by experts in the field. In a clear and readable narrative, word identification, comprehension, and other processes in normal reading development are discussed. Against the background of normal progress, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children examines factors that put children at risk of poor reading. It explores in detail how literacy can be fostered from birth through kindergarten and the primary grades, including evaluation of philosophies, systems, and materials commonly used to teach reading.




Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8


Book Description

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.




Guiding Young Children


Book Description

The seventh edition of this popular book supports the authors' belief that guidance is more than getting children to do what you want them to do now; it is helping them to become everything they can become for all of their tomorrows. The book provides an overview, followed by discussion of core concepts, strategies for applying those concepts, and, finally, the broader perspective of professionalism and human resource development. Its approach focuses on the need to consider a child's developmental level as well as family and cultural context when planning environments and activities for young children. Unlike others in the field, it offers concrete suggestions on how to guide children while they are involved in specific activities such as playing, eating, napping, etc. For teachers and parents of young children.




Positive Behavior Supports in Classrooms and Schools (3rd Edition)


Book Description

This unique book provides teachers and other service providers the knowledge and skills for Positive Behavior Supports in school settings, thereby improving the academic and social skills of their students. It is written in an informational format that teachers and other service providers can immediately put to use. The text is generic across K-12 grade levels and focuses on Positive Behavior Supports in school settings. Each chapter begins with Key Point Questions, followed by two Window to the World Case Studies, information on the Key Point Questions, Discussion Questions, and Suggestions for Classroom and School Activities. Additionally, an overview of Positive Behavior Supports is provided, which includes Measuring Behavior, Functional Assessment and Analysis, Reinforcement, Punishment, Classroom Structure, Preventative Procedures and Interventions, Cooperative Learning and Peer Tutoring, and Family and Agency Involvement. The Self-Management Strategies, Social Skills Instruction, and School-Wide Positive Behavior Supports are vital areas of knowledge. This “How To” book is written for teachers and other direct service providers in a non-technical manner with specific real-world examples.




Parenting Matters


Book Description

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.




Developing Mentoring and Coaching Relationships in Early Care and Education


Book Description

Developing Mentoring and Coaching Relationships in Early Care and Education is the ideal resource for anyone charged with guiding teachers as they encounter real world challenges in today's early childhood programs and can turn to this practical new resource as they work with supervisors and teacher-leaders to achieve greater professional effectiveness while bridging the gap between the vision for quality and actual practice. The book is packed with helpful reflective questions, illustrative mentoring and coaching scenarios, and ready-to-implement planning tools. The focus is on encouraging reflection on current practices in order to achieve quality programs, meet teaching standards, and promote positive outcomes for children in these times of rising standards and, in many cases, lower levels of support.




Child Safety, Welfare and Well-being


Book Description

This book provides a focused and comprehensive overview of the status of children across society, with special reference to emerging features and measures of child safety, welfare, and overall well-being. The book is arranged into four parts covering various dimensions of child welfare and well-being. In this second edition, highly experienced academics, researchers, child rights activities, and policymakers from both developed and developing countries have contributed chapters on topics such as status of children living under institutional care, sexual abuse of male children and tribal girl children, issues and challenges faced by children living in conflict zones, children living on the streets, COVID-19 and its impact on the education of children. The status of marginalized children gets special importance in the second edition. The new chapters include field-based experiences of researchers in protecting child rights and preventing child abuse. It also considers the promising strategies and promising future directions in enhancing effective prevention, intervention and responses to child abuse and neglect. This volume is essential for a wide range of professionals and researchers from the social sciences, law, medicine, and behavioral sciences. It is also beneficial for policymakers and law enforcement agencies working with children.




Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves


Book Description

Anti-bias education begins with you! Become a skilled anti-bias teacher with this practical guidance to confronting and eliminating barriers.