This article begins with a review of research providing evidence that social-emotional competence is a key component of school readiness and that the foundations for social-emotional competence are laid down in the earliest years. We go on to review effective practices and specific interventions that have been found to strengthen children's…

Fostering healthy social and emotional development provides the foundation for school readiness in programs serving infants, toddlers, and their families. In this article, the author explores four key concepts that make the link between social and emotional development and early learning: 1) Cognitive and social-emotional development are…

Alison Gopnik, PhD, a researcher and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, responds to questions about the ways researchers are discovering the complex processes of early cognitive development. Dr. Gopnik shares some of the creative research methods that are demonstrating how infants are figuring out what is going on in the mind of…

Daniel B. Kessler, MD, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician, provides guidance on establishing healthy eating patterns in the early years. He emphasizes the importance of the feeding relationship as an important part of a child's social and emotional development. How parents approach feeding and mealtime is about so much more than physical…

Caring for Quality and Partners in Family Child Care are home visiting programs designed to improve the quality of home-based child care. This article describes the experiences of two different home visitors to demonstrate how programs such as these can help providers improve the overall quality of care, increase children's development, and lead…

Infant mental health specialists are increasingly expected to treat complex mental health disorders in very young children. Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder which can lead to functional impairment across home, preschool, and community settings. The authors share their experiences with Keylah, a preschooler with significant social anxiety…

The Pyramid Model is a conceptual framework for organizing practices for promoting young children's social-emotional development and preventing and addressing challenging behavior. The authors describe a coaching approach that is focused on supporting early educators' implementation of the Pyramid Model. The authors provide a description of the…

One of the findings from the ZERO TO THREE "Parenting Infants and Toddlers Today" (Hart Research Associates, 2009) parent survey was that while the majority of parents understood ways of promoting their child's development, their understanding of the milestones related to social and emotional development was less consistent. This is an important…

The early childhood provider, because of the consistent contact over time with infants, toddlers, and their families, is well positioned to observe the nuances of the early caregiving relationship; monitor early child behavior and development; identify deviances; and offer support, guidance, and intervention when families struggle. This…

The professional preparation of allied health professionals typically focuses on the acquisition of knowledge in a particular area of expertise with less consideration of training on social-emotional development and on how to engage parents in the clinical process, parent-child relationships, or principles of mental health. The authors explore how…

Parents responding to the ZERO TO THREE Parenting Infants and Toddlers Today poll showed excellent understanding of early childhood development, but they also underestimated young infants' emotional sensitivity and overestimated toddlers' capacities for self-regulation. This article reviews these results along with research findings on the complex…

ZERO TO THREE's "Parenting Infants and Toddlers Today" survey presents an opportunity to explore areas where African American, Hispanic, and White parents may differ in their perceptions of infant development. The article highlights some of the differences in these racial and ethnic groups, such as parents' understanding of early social and…

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 updated version of their chapter from "Children's Play: The Roots of Reading" (published by ZERO TO THREE in 2004), the authors describe the recent attack on play, in both early childhood and elementary education. They provide a historical overview of the contentious relationship between play and cognitive development. The authors stress…

Research suggests what many parents and early care and education staff already know: Significant numbers of young children are struggling with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges that negatively impact their functioning as family members, friends, and learners. This article explores how caregivers can foster developmental mastery and…