Child Development

The Loose Parts set of books serve as inspiration with hundreds of beautiful full color photographs illustrating ways children enjoy using everyday items in their play, encouraging their curiosity, giving free reign to their play, and encouraging creativity. Books are available individually.

Uncover simple strategies that will help you bounce back from life's ups and downs! The book contains a 23-item reflective checklist designed to help you gain valuable insights about your personal strengths. As you reflect on your strengths, the journal will help you establish goals and uncover strategies that will strengthen your relationships, increase initiative, support internal beliefs, and maintain self-control. In today's world, we all face risk. Spend time offsetting that risk by reflecting on all of your strengths, identifying strategies to implement, and celebrating the progress you have made. Copyright 2013.

Do children in your classroom have a hard time starting or completing activities? Do they struggle to remember directions? Are they easily distracted? Do they have a hard time making and keeping friends? Alert and Attentive offers practical strategies to help young children develop the attention skills they need to thrive. Learn how self-regulation and executive function skills work together to support attention and focus. Discover ways to create a calm and supportive learning environment that fosters concentration, helps children ignore distractions, and promotes learning. Alert and Attentive is your go-to guide for creating a classroom where children thrive. With practical tips, real-world stories, and evidence-based strategies, you'll empower young learners to reach their full potential.

Family engagement is one of the most powerful predictors of student achievement, and parent-teacher conferences are a key opportunity to build those important connections. Partnering for Success: Strategies for Effective Parent-Teacher Conferences equips early childhood educators with practical, research-based techniques to foster trust, collaboration, and communication with families. This essential guide provides step-by-step strategies for planning, conducting, and reflecting on conferences that go beyond routine meetings to become meaningful, productive partnerships. Each chapter delivers actionable tips - from creating a welcoming environment and listening effectively to celebrating achievements and following up. With helpful forms to make planning easier, this book helps educators confidently navigate every stage of the conferencing process.

Preschoolers have a sense of wonder about so many aspects of their world. They enjoy demonstrating their knowledge to others, and they are challenged to use their brains in fascinating new ways every day. Whether they are making clay figures, rolling cars down ramps, experimenting with writing, or exploring nature, they are expanding their mental horizons constantly. This book will help you understand typical milestones children tend to reach during the preschool years as they develop their ability to think, understand, and solve problems. As you examine classroom scenarios, you will gain insight into various ways young children express their developing cognitive skills and some challenges that tend to occur. Paperback. 136 pages.

Do children in your class struggle with holding writing tools comfortably? Cutting with scissors accurately? Completing self-care tasks such as dressing and using eating utensils? This practical guide, written by a pediatric occupational therapist, equips you with the tools to empower children's fine motor development! Inside, you'll discover age-specific milestones, ready-to-use activities, differentiation strategies, classroom adaptations, and collaboration tips. Perfect for early childhood educators and special-education teachers, Fine Motor Foundations includes valuable resources for toy recommendations, skill-based activity lists, and downloadable materials to empower children, build their confidence, and develop their skills.

In today's world, it's crucial that we equip children with the tools they need to stay safe. Yet, many adults don't know where to begin. Written for educators and parents by a prevention education expert, Body Safety for Young Children is the comprehensive guide you need to navigate this complex and sensitive issue. Author Kimberly King takes the fear out of sexual-abuse prevention and makes it child-friendly and approachable, so you can confidently communicate with children and protect them from harm. Packed with extraordinary stories, prevention skills, talking points, and what-if scenarios, this compassionate resource book is the ultimate toolkit for educators and families looking to prevent child sexual abuse. The practical guide covers everything you need to know to keep children safe and informed. The tips, themes, shareable resources, and book suggestions in this guide will help you build a strong foundation of body-safety skills and provide simple safety strategies that work.

Preschoolers tend to be social beings. Whether they are playing with dolls side by side, building block castles together, or rolling down hills with friends, most young children enjoy the company of others. Playing together comes naturally, but you can help them negotiate turn taking, learning how to mend hurt feelings, and practice communicating positively while they play. This book highlights the milestones children tend to reach during the preschool years as they develop socially. As a guide and facilitator, you can share strategies that will help preschoolers learn to be cooperative team members and kind friends while having fun together. Paperback. 96 pages.

Whether you see a preschooler laughing or crying, hugging or tugging on a playmate, taking risks or seeking comfort from an adult, you know that they are developing their emotional skills and growing up in so many ways every day. And they need your help! This book shares common milestones and typical scenarios to help you recognize various ways that preschoolers express their feelings and interact with others. As you support preschoolers struggling to handle emotional challenges that occur during everyday interactions with adults and other children, you will help them learn the skills to navigate their emotional ups and downs in more positive ways. Paperback. 96 pages.

Take a fresh approach to community service and giving back. Teaching young children to be socially conscious, community-oriented, and eager to volunteer seems like a daunting task, especially for busy families with children of varying ages. Simple Acts brings busy parents practical, easy-to-do ideas to involve the whole family in volunteering and helping others in the community. Full of advice, tips, and real-life stories; this fun, easy-to-use guide helps parents and children of all ages incorporate hands-on community service experiences into their daily lives. You're never too young -or too old- to start giving back! Paperback. 144 pages.

Calm and in Control provides strategies to help children in a preschool or kindergarten classroom learn to regulate their emotions and behaviors. Some children need help recognizing that something is upsetting or overly exciting. Others may have difficulty knowing how to calm down and take control of their emotions or behaviors on their own. Discover how to create a nurturing and consistent environment that supports children as they navigate learning, social interactions, and impulse control throughout the day. Explore techniques to support: Turn-taking, Lining up as a group and coping with not being first in line, The ability to refrain from blurting out answers, Freedom from separation anxiety, The ability to handle transitions, Regrouping after something funny happens, Impulse control, and Socially appropriate behavior. You will find yourself referring to this book often for ideas on enriching the day with sensory play activities and strategies that prevent disruptive behaviors!

Children need a broad view of the world to better work with others and achieve academic success. That means being able to see many perspectives, listen to others, and share their own ideas and perceptions. This book contains simple activities that start with identifying different perspectives and then challenge them to notice what they perceive. The themes are meant to ask children to notice relationships, investigate same and different, use perceptions to develop inductive and deductive reasoning, and evaluate their processes and thinking. All of this in the context of fun songs, games and activities. Divided into four major themes that walk children through increasing understandings of their place in the world: literacy, math, science, motor skills, and social skills. Paperback. 168 pages.

Sometimes misbehavior isn't what it seems. Many children come to care with early signs of mental- or behavioral-health issues. Early childhood professionals are often the first to notice that something is different. "How Can I Help?" is a practical guide that helps educators first identify issues and then create nurturing, safe, and successful learning environments to set up all children for success. Learn how to: promote mental health for all children in your care, identify signs of behavioral-health issues in children and family members, support children who have specific behavioral-health difficulties, and work with the families of children with behavioral-health challenges.

Enhance the growth and development of infants and young children with more than 400 fun, fast, and easy-to-use learning activities -- now in a new edition specially developed to complement ASQ-3®. Perfect for sharing with parents of children who are developing typically or need non intensive support in one or more developmental areas, these playful, developmentally appropriate activities encourage progress in the same five developmental areas as ASQ-3®: communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving, and personal-social. Use safe, age-appropriate materials that most families have at home, help even the youngest children develop crucial early language and literacy skills, promote closer parent-child interactions, and serve as a natural follow-up for children who score in the ASQ-3® monitoring zone. Available in English or Spanish. Paperback with CD-ROM. 160 pages.

Join the growing nature-based learning movement! Written for educators by educators, Partnering with Nature turns theoretical ideas about the benefits of nature in childhood into achievable results. Discover how to meet state-mandated early learning standards while enjoying daily nature-based activities. With a sample classroom schedule, a list of essential items to carry in a backpack, an outline of seasonal topics, seasonal activities at a glance, and an assessment tool, this practical, inclusive guide demonstrates how nature can support preschool children's learning. Partnering with Nature is filled with practical advice that will allow early childhood teachers who are new to nature-based education to venture forward with confidence. Paperback. 312 pages.

A helpful, informative companion to the Ages & Stages Questionnaires®: Social-Emotional, Second Edition (ASQ:SE-2) screening system, this DVD gives an overview of emotional and social development and provides a thorough introduction to ASQ:SE-2®:. Viewers get an inside look at the screening system in practice as they watch a home visitor using ASQ:SE-2®: with the family of a 4-year-old boy. They'll see how parents complete the questionnaires, with close-ups of sample questions. With this instructive DVD, early interventionists, home visitors, pediatricians, teachers, and other professionals will be fully prepared to administer and score ASQ:SE-2®:.

Children are spending less time being outside in nature, playing, imagining, and learning about their surroundings. Instead, they're spending more time with tablets, televisions, and overly structured routines. This book shows practical and strategic ways educators can create rich, explorative, and interdisciplinary learning through extensive outdoor experiences. Learn how to develop and implement a nature-based curriculum to support children's optimal learning, from start to finish. Age focus: 3 - 6 years. Paperback. 128 pages.

Nature-based early childhood education is a rapidly growing trend! Although many schools and programs have incorporated nature-based learning, educators can feel at a loss when trying to evaluate quality in this learning approach. But don't worry - Evaluating Natureness: Measuring the Quality of Nature-Based Classrooms in Pre-K through 3rd Grade is here to help! Designed with early education practitioners, researchers, and policy makers in mind, the NAture-Based Education Rating Scales (NABERS) for Pre-K and K-3 let professionals easily collect standardized information to measure the quality of education settings in the areas of: Program goals and curriculum practices, Staffing, Environment, Community partnerships, and Family engagement. Whether you want to evaluate an existing nature-based program or discover how to shift your program toward a nature focus, this book is for you!

The ultimate resource book! Over 600 activities, stories, games, recipes, props, and dances to enhance any preschool curriculum. Plus a materials index, theme connection index, and thematic chart. Paperback. 512 pages.

1 year & up. With more than 250 songs, rhymes, and chants, this book is a fun way to enrich toddlers' language experiences. By incorporating songs, chants, and rhymes into the classroom, teachers provide opportunities for children to develop every aspect of reading readiness and literacy. While the selections themselves are a great way to enhance the development of literacy skills, the follow-up suggestions for story time, outdoor play, music and movement, and literacy extension activities will be a sure-fire hit with this age group. 256 pages.

Written by a teacher with more than 25 years of experience, this book offers a jargon-free view of Waldorf education and its philosophy of the importance of a three-dimensional education. Through learning experiences that involve all of the senses, children use a variety of intelligences to develop thought, feeling, and intentional, purposeful activity. Whether you're Waldorf parent or teacher, or you just want to learn more about these innovative educational concepts, this book contains important ideas on learning that you can apply today. Paperback.

Get your class moving with this exciting Wiggle Giggle & Shake - Move and Learn Book with 200 Activities to Get Active. This book provides 200 ways to move and learn. The engaging pages explore 38 popular themes to encourage children to problem solve, explore their feelings, and participate physically in their own learning. This book promotes gross motor skills and collaborative play. Include 216 pgs.

A beginner's primer to providing professional child care for toddlers and two-year-olds! The elements of a quality learning environment are not the same for every age. The toddler years are unique, and what for preschool does not always work with toddlers. Complete with tips for creating a developmentally appropriate environment and experiences that stimulate muscles and minds, Focus on Toddlers gives caregivers the tools to craft a quality learning environment that's as unique as the needs of the children in their care.

A young child's brain is uniquely sensitive to the effects of stress and trauma, which can have detrimental, long-term developmental impact. "Helping Them Heal" provides answers, ideas, and specific classroom strategies to move trauma-affected children in positive directions. Educators will learn ways to help children build resilience, self-regulation, and self-competence using this sensitive, supportive, and practical guide. Paperback. 192 pages.