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.

Child care is an integral part of the web of influences and experiences that shape children's development. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach that covers both historic and economic contexts, this unique book characterizes child care in 18 countries on five continents. Specific historical roots and the current social contexts of child care are delineated in industrialized as well as in developing countries. To increase the depth of crosscultural analysis and integration, commentators from countries and disciplines other than the authors comment on the issues raised in each chapter.

This manual includes detailed descriptions of the 8 CLASS Toddler dimensions, administration procedures, and information about the tool's development.

Based on more than 100 interviews with government officials and extensive archival research, this book looks at the politics behind child care legislation. Identifying key times at which major child care bills were introduced, Cohen examines the politics surrounding these events and subsequent political negotiations. Cohen also looks at the impact President Clinton had on child care policymaking and how child care legislation became part of other issues, including welfare reform and tax policy revisions.

Early childhood care and education (ECCE) settings offer an opportunity to provide children with a solid beginning in all areas of their development. The quality and efficacy of these settings depend largely on the individuals within the ECCE workforce. Policy makers need a complete picture of ECCE teachers and caregivers in order to tackle the persistent challenges facing this workforce. The IOM and the National Research Council hosted a workshop to describe the ECCE workforce and outline its parameters. Speakers explored issues in defining and describing the workforce, the marketplace of ECCE, the effects of the workforce on children, the contextual factors that shape the workforce, and opportunities for strengthening ECCE as a profession.

The central issue of daycare is often framed in a way that pits working moms against stay-at-home moms, and feminists against traditional families. But the real conflict, Brian C. Robertson shows in this carefully researched book, is between all parents and the burgeoning day care establishment itself-a multimillion dollar lobby with a vested interest in the expansion of subsidized day care services. Robertson shows how this establishment works to expand its power and silence its critics.