This practical resource explains brain development from prenatal to age 8 with suggestions for activities educators and caregivers can use to foster children's cognitive growth. The authors begin with the basics of brain development, and the issues that affect it, and then provide information specific to infant, toddler, preschool, and…

Positive relationships between practitioners and parents are essential for young children's wellbeing, but achieving this can be difficult if there is not enough understanding about how relationships work when one person (the practitioner or teacher) has to play the professional role. Strong communication skills are fundamental to this…

Globally, early years policies and documents have set out aspirational outcomes and benefits for children, their families and the wider society. These policies have emphasised the place of early childhood provision within the wider global agenda, by tackling inequality and disadvantage early on in children's lives. However, these strategies have…

"Understanding the Montessori Approach" is a much needed source of information for those wishing to extend and consolidate their understanding of the Montessori Approach and how it is used in the teaching and learning of young children. It will enable the reader to analyse the essential elements of this Approach to early childhood and and its…

Now in its second edition, "Nature and Young Children" promotes the holistic development of children by connecting them with nature. It offers advice and guidance on how to set up indoor and outdoor nature play spaces as well as encouraging environmentally responsible attitudes, values and behaviour in your early childhood setting. Covering topics…

This timely and accessible text introduces, theorises and practically applies two important concepts which now underpin early years practice: those of "playful learning" and "playful pedagogies". Pat Broadhead and Andy Burt draw upon filmed material, conversations with children, reflection, observation, and parental and staff interviews, in their…

"Understanding the Reggio Approach" is a much needed source of information for those wishing to extend and consolidate their understanding of the Reggio Approach. Analysing the essential elements of the Reggio Approach to early childhood and its relationship to quality early years practice, this new edition is fully updated with the…

"Understanding the HighScope Approach" is a much needed source of information for those wishing to extend and consolidate their understanding of the HighScope Approach. It will enable the reader to analyse the essential elements of the HighScope Approach to early childhood and its relationship to quality early years practice. Exploring…

This book makes explicit connections between young children's spontaneous repeated actions and their representations of their emotional worlds. Drawing on the literature on schemas, attachment theory and family contexts, the author takes schema theory into the territory of the emotions, making it relevant to the social and emotional development…

This book contributes to a growing body of research relevant to efforts to make algebra an integral part of early mathematics instruction, an area of studies that has come to be known as Early Algebra. It provides both a rationale for promoting algebraic reasoning in the elementary school curriculum and empirical data to support it. The authors…

The second edition of this best-selling textbook provides students and practitioners with a broad introduction to, and critical analysis of, the main theories and issues within the field of early childhood studies. The book adopts a multi-disciplinary approach and pulls together all the key themes involved in the study of young children and…

This primer supplies systematic basic phonics material for learning how to read, to be put into the hands of children. The primer includes instructions for the teacher, but it assumes that the user also has read either the book, "How the Alphabet Works," or the matching pamphlet, "Systematic Basic Phonics," which is included in the back of the…

Family-school partnerships are increasingly touted as a means of improving both student and school improvement. This recognition has led to an increase in policies and initiatives that offer the following benefits: improved communication between parents and educators; home and school goals that are mutually supportive and shared; better…

This book explores how young children learn to draw and draw to learn, at home and school. It provides support for practitioners in developing a pedagogy of drawing in Art and Design and across the curriculum and provide advice for parents about how to make sense of their children's drawings. This book is enlivened with the real drawings of seven…

From adding richness and variety to learning, to redesigning a playground, this highly accessible text will provide early years practitioners with a wealth of ideas on how to foster creative play and learning in the outdoor environment with a focus on interacting with the natural world. "Nature and Young Children" contains many simple ideas on the…