Early childhood programs with infants and toddlers are bustling and alive in ways different from programs that have only preschoolers. Infants and toddlers can make group care environments more caring and family focused spaces, nurturing the well-being of all adults and children participating in the program. The number of infants and toddlers who…

Approximately 228,000 children from birth to age 3 are affected by a disability. Developmental challenges may include severe, chronic disabilities that can begin at birth and last a lifetime. Delayed speech and language are the most common types of developmental delays among infants and toddlers. Many of these children are at risk for later…

The words "routine" and "ritual" are sometimes used interchangeably. Yet there are some important differences. Routines are repeated, predictable events that provide a foundation for the daily tasks in a child's life. Teachers can create a predictable routine in early childhood settings for infants and toddlers, and they can individualize those…

As infant/toddler programs encounter growing diversity, they need to reenvision the impact they have on children and families in all areas of practice, from recruiting new enrollees to stocking classrooms to changing the ways adults interact with children and families with different languages and from different cultures. What happens on the first…

The authors discuss three steps to helping babies with transitions: observe, ask, and respond (OAR). They advise teachers about how to ask a family questions about their baby and how to give the family suggestions to alleviate the baby's stress, without offending family members. This column includes a list of recommended resources. (Contains 7…

Infants and toddlers encounter numerous spoken story experiences early in their lives: conversations, oral stories, and language games such as songs and rhymes. Many adults are even surprised to learn that children this young need these kinds of natural language experiences at all. Adults help very young children take a step along the path toward…

The quality of child-teacher interactions during daily child care routines plays a significant role in young children's development. The nature of mealtimes--the pace, the caregiver's responsiveness, how food is offered--affects infants' and toddlers' emotional health. Maintaining consistency between how children are fed at home and at the center…

How can language and literacy enhance emotional development in the very young (birth to three years)? Although all children begin to understand their world through language and social interaction, literacy differs from culture to culture. It can range from oral stories of personal and cultural relevance to songs of ethnic pride and includes a…

Attachment and separation are the stuff of which life is made. The bonds between family and child promote resilience, self-regulation, and a positive sense of self. In this article, the author focuses her discussion on the importance of attachment to children's development. She has cited some theories that can help her explain further. For…