Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

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.

We perceive and understand our environment using many sensory systems-vision, touch, hearing, taste, smell, and proprioception. These multiple sensory modalities give us complementary sources of information about the environment. This book explores how we develop the ability to integrate our senses.

A unique, multi-discipline, developmental approach to childhood psychopathology Child and Adolescent Psychopathology is the only comprehensive text in the field to address genetic, neurobiological, and environmental factors within a developmental context. Based on cutting-edge research and aligned with the DSM-5, this book emphasizes how, when, and why disorders emerge among young people, and the ways in which symptom profiles change at different stages of development. This new third edition has been updated to include new chapters on OCD and trauma disorders consistent with DSM-5 classification, and includes new discussion on epigenetics and the neighborhood effects on the development of delinquency. Coverage includes extensive discussion of risk factors, from disturbed attachment relations and abuse/neglect, to head injury and teratogen exposure, followed by in-depth examination of behavior disorders and psychological disorders including Autism Spectrum, Schizophrenia Spectrum, and Eating Disorders. Psychological disorders in children are increasingly being explored from a relational perspective, and continuous advances in neurobiology research are adding an additional dimension to our understanding of cause, effect, and appropriate intervention. This book provides detailed guidance toward all aspects of childhood psychopathology, with a multi-discipline approach and a unique developmental emphasis. Discover how psychopathology emerges throughout the stages of development Learn how both genetics and environmental factors influence risk and behaviors Understand the prevalence, risk factors, and progression of each disorder Gain deep insight from leading experts in neurobiology and developmental psychopathology As the field of child psychology continues to evolve, behavioral and psychological disorders move beyond a list of symptoms to encompass the 'whole child'—biology, chemistry, environment, and culture are becoming increasingly relevant in understanding and treating these disorders, and must be considered from the earliest assessment stages. Child and Adolescent Psychopathology provides comprehensive information on childhood disorders from a developmental perspective.

This text is about doing science and the active process of reading, learning, thinking, generating ideas, designing experiments, and the logistics surrounding each step of the research process. In easy-to-read, conversational language, Kim MacLin teaches students experimental design principles and techniques using a tutorial approach in which students read, critique, and analyze over 75 actual experiments from every major area of psychology. She provides them with real-world information about how science in psychology is conducted and how they can participate. Recognizing that students come to an experimental design course with their own interests and perspectives, MacLin covers many subdisciplines of psychology throughout the text, including IO psychology, child psychology, social psychology, behavioral psychology, cognitive psychology, clinical psychology, health psychology, educational/school psychology, legal psychology, and personality psychology, among others. Part I of the text is content oriented and provides an overview of the principles of experimental design. Part II contains annotated research articles for students to read and analyze. New sections on how to critically evaluate media reports of scientific findings (in other words, how to identify ‘fake news’), authorship guidelines and decisions, survey research methods and AI tools have been included. Further, expanded information on the Open Science movement, and on ethics in research, and methods to achieve clarity and precision in thinking and writing are included. This edition is up to date with the latest APA Publication Manual (7th edition) and includes an overview of the bias-free language guidelines, the use of singular "they," and an ethical compliance checklist.. This text is essential reading for students and researchers interested in and studying experimental design in psychology.

This monograph covers the Family Life Project studying a representative sample of every baby born to a mother who resided in one of six poor rural counties over a one year period, oversampling for poverty and African American. 1,292 children were followed from birth to 36 months of age. This study examines the relation between social risk and children's executive functioning, language development, and behavioral competence at 36 months.