This book provides a guide for planning, providing, and documenting effective early interventions for infants and toddlers and their families. It discusses best practices for engaging the family, team problem-solving, developing individual treatment plans, incorporating evidence-based interventions, tracking progress, and identifying and solving challenges and obstacles presenting during treatment. The book focuses on the approximately 13% of U.S. children under age 3 who have developmental delays/disabilities, many of which may impair their ability to talk, move, learn, socialize, and become independent. When delivered effectively, early intervention can improve daily function and outcomes for these children, many of whom present with multiple and unique challenges. Each chapter in this book is written to guide practitioners, clinicians, therapists, and related professionals in their daily work with young children and their families. It addresses everyday challenges, including creating routines for parents of infants and toddlers, teaching parents how to play with their children and respond to problem behaviors, and managing caregiver stress. Promoting Positive Behavioral Outcomes for Infants and Toddlers is an essential resource for scientist-practitioners/professionals and clinicians as well as researchers and graduate students in child and school psychology; educational psychology; behavioral therapy; infancy and early childhood development; speech pathology, and occupational therapy.

"Discipline" and "Behavioral guidance" are not concepts usually associated with young infants. Babies have much to learn in their first year. They struggle to manage day and night cycles of sleeping, nursing, and waking. They must deal with gas bubbles that hurt their tiny tummies. Slowly and gradually, through innumerable caregiver acts of lovingkindness, young infants learn whom they can trust to ease hunger pangs, whose arms feel secure and reassuring when rocking them. Deep within their tiny bodies grows the certainty that they can act lovingly, that they can find courage to try scary, bewildering tasks or more acceptable ways of behaving. They learn from their daily interactions with loving adults that they can struggle bravely to learn new ways and use more acceptable means than crying in order to get their needs met. Caregivers' soothing voice tones help reassure young children when they feel startled, lonesome, scared, defiant, or cranky (as when hustled through strange places, such as crowded shopping malls) or when introduced to strange new settings and persons, including childcare providers. Caregiver choices of positive guidance tools help build a child's bravery and grit so the child can keep on trying to master more mature behaviors.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

The first three years of life play a crucial role in setting the stage for later adjustment and success. For children with disabilities, children at risk, and even for healthy infants and toddlers born into well-functioning families, support and early intervention can foster optimal growth and development. This concise and readable guide presents a developmentally sound framework for strengths-based intervention with parents and young children. The volume is filled with practical suggestions for building positive family relationships, cultivating parental knowledge and understanding of child development, and enhancing family support systems. Also featured is an extensive annotated bibliography that describes a wealth of additional resources for professionals and parents. Grounded in research and informed by wisdom from the field, this book provides essential knowledge and skills for professionals and students across a range of health care, social service, and educational disciplines.

Adolescence is a critical growth period in which youth develop essential skills that prepare them for adulthood. Prevention and intervention programs are designed to meet the needs of adolescents who require additional support and promote healthy behaviors and outcomes. To ensure the success of these efforts, it is essential that they include reliably identifiable techniques, strategies, or practices that have been proven effective. Promoting Positive Adolescent Health Behaviors and Outcomes: Thriving in the 21st Century identifies key program factors that can improve health outcomes related to adolescent behavior and provides evidence-based recommendations toward effective implementation of federal programming initiatives. This study explores normative adolescent development, the current landscape of adolescent risk behavior, core components of effective programs focused on optimal health, and recommendations for research, programs, and policies.

"The Peaceful Library," written and illustrated by Annie Alwine, includes fun pictures and simple rhymes that teach positive behaviors in a library. Children learn best from repetition and clearly communicated expectations of their behavior before they are in a new environment. Taking babies, toddlers and kids to the library can either be a joyful tradition or a nightmare. Children can become overstimulated and excited when they are out of their typical routines and in a new place, which can make teaching appropriate etiquette in the midst of a new experience very challenging. Don't wait until you're already through the library doors to beg them not to scream or run around the book stacks-- practice now. The pages are filled with diversity and inclusion of varying disabilities, sexual orientation, races, gender identities, body types and religions. Children and families can identify with characters while gaining exposure to a variety of cultures different from their own, encouraging acceptance and appreciation of others. The first children's picture book of its kind, "The Peaceful Library," is part of a debut series from Behavior Books. The author includes a parent guide and is great for children ages 1 to 5 years old. Accolades for The Peaceful Series:"Every baby registry should include this book series!"-- Natalie Rodriguez, M.D. Associate ClinicalProfessor, Family Medicine and Public Health, UC San Diego"We all have cringe-worthy moments in public with our kids. Explaining the behaviors we want to see in advance truly helps. These books make it fun so I don't sound like a broken record."-- Valerie Dorrian, M.A., CCC-SLP,Pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist & Mom of Two"These books prepare your kids for new adventures in advance while keeping your child's attention. I highly recommend making this series part of your bedtime routines." -- Joel E. Hersehy, M.D., Fellow in the American Academy of Pediatrics