This article describes the use of Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs) to assess child and program outcomes. IGDIs do not provide all information needed to plan and implement effective services for infants and toddlers, but they do provide frequent data that can be used to make good decisions about interventions. Even though IGDIs…

The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) is a federally funded national resource center designed to support early care and education providers address the social-emotional needs of children birth through age 5 years. Recent research has found that an extraordinarily high number of young children are being…

In this article a university professor, former student, and father describe the father's interactions with his toddler-age son within a parent-child playgroup. The authors discuss the important role of fathers, what they learned from observing the father interact with his son, and implications for teachers and other professionals.

Britt and Gillespie make suggestions for teachers' professional New Year's resolutions, including challenging oneself. They include a collection of resources and urge teachers to join NAEYC's Infant/Toddler Professionals Interest Forum. (Contains 27 resources.)

In the Netherlands, many educators and care providers working at special schools for children with severe speech and language impairments (SSLI) use sign-supported Dutch (SSD) to facilitate communication. Anecdotal experiences suggest positive results, but empirical evidence is lacking. In this multiple case study the changes that occur in the way…

Recent research on how infants and toddlers grow and learn has provided new evidence for creating child care practices that support healthy development. The author describes 6 program practices drawn from this research. The article discusses practices that support secure attachments, identity formation, family practices, attention to developmental…

A child's third birthday is an important day. Aside from being a time to celebrate, it also marks the transition from Help Me Grow Infant and Toddler Intervention services to a preschool option. This transition changes the services available to a parent and how they are provided, as the focus moves from a child with a disability or developmental…

Washington State Department of Early Learning (DEL) contracted with Thrive by Five Washington to facilitate and write this report. A collaborative group of key stakeholders helped develop this plan, which consists of actionable policy recommendations in seven high-level focus areas. Within each area are specific "next steps" that build…

In this portrait, Travis Wright documents young Goddess's capacity for strength in the face of trauma and neglect. Goddess, a sixteen-month-old child who has never laughed, is Wright's first client at his clinical internship during his graduate studies. Drawing on his work with Goddess, her mother, and her teachers, Wright explores the ways in…

This paper describes a training program--"Learning to Live Together"--for early childhood educators working with toddlers and preschoolers in daycare or nursery schools. The training aims to provide educators with (a) research-based "knowledge" on socio-emotional development, and on social "learning opportunities" offered by daily social and…

Dialogic research, building on the dialogic philosophy of Mikhail Bakhtin, is fundamentally concerned with the social, discursive nature of language. This article describes an application of dialogic research methods in a pilot study conducted in an Education and Care setting in Wellington, New Zealand focusing on an 18-month-old toddler and his…

This review traces the evolution from 1971 to the present of a national technical assistance (TA) program to support the creation, expansion, and improvement of services for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with special needs. From its beginning as a TA resource for demonstration projects, to linking outreach projects' expertise with state…

Among the various age groups in early childhood programs, toddlers seem the most challenging for teachers to work with. Toddlers are often viewed as oppositional, clingy, whiny, prone to tantrums, untrustworthy, and exasperating. The author believes that these characterizations insert unnecessary negativity into the spirits of toddlers and…

The Developing Families Project-South Africa (DFP-SA) is a community-based model of education and training for the care, support and education of vulnerable children birth-to-three and their caregivers, guardians and families in rural and peri-urban townships. The approach fosters interactive learning among community members about early care and…

Early Head Start is a federally funded community-based program for low-income families with infants and toddlers and for low-income pregnant women. Created in 1995, Early Head Start strives to promote healthy prenatal outcomes for pregnant women, to enhance the development of children ages birth to three, and to promote healthy family functioning.…