This article evaluates the concept of infant 'belonging', central to several national curricula for early childhood education and care. Here, the authors focus on Australia's Early Years Learning Framework. Four different meanings attach to 'belonging' in the Early Years Learning Framework, the primary being sociopolitical. However, 'a sense of…

Australia's National Quality Framework identifies responsibilities for early childhood educators who work with infants to plan for and assess their learning. Educators are urged to be "responsive to children's ideas and play" and to "assess, anticipate and extend children's learning". Responsiveness in relation to infants is…

Examined the effect on father-infant relationships of a parent training program on infant massage and bathing. Infants in the treatment group greeted fathers with more eye contact, smiles, vocalizing, reaching, and orienting responses and showed less avoidance behavior than did control group infants. Fathers in the treatment group showed greater…

Assessed association between aspects of mother's employment and security of infant-mother attachment. Found that mothers' prenatal attitudes toward work and timing of work return made significant contributions to attachment outcomes apart from effects of maternal sensitivity, demographic, maternal, child, and child care factors. Mothers who…

This study addressed the argument that early child care constitutes a risk to children's social adaptation, and that for high-risk samples this effect depends on the security of the infant-mother attachment relationship. A longitudinal investigation of 135 first-born children in a low-risk sample was conducted to discern the contribution of child…