Children form attachments to important adults in their lives; these relationships are important for children’s later social and cognitive skills. It is important for educators to be sensitive to children’s reactions and use multiple strategies to build secure relationships. Similarly, educators need to build strong relationships with parents. We present strategies to support these relationships.

Potty training is a developmental milestone that can be overwhelming for children, caregivers, and educators. Children begin potty training at different ages, follow different training processes, and often have setbacks such as accidents, constipation, and regressions. We present signs that children are ready to begin potty training and strategies for success.

Classroom transitions are often challenging for young children, caregivers, and educators. These transitions can often be stressful and create anxiety, particularly for infants and toddlers. To ease this anxiety, educators and caregivers can establish routines involving positive interactions and a responsive environment. We present ways to establish and support individualized routines to promote successful transitions.

In part one of this two-part series, we discussed planning intentional and differentiated language and literacy learning opportunities based on children’s needs. In this second part, we focus on ways to implement these teaching goals by embedding them within naturally occurring play.

Biting commonly occurs between 4 months and three years of age. Although biting is normal, young children require support to find alternative, safe behaviors to replace biting. We present three approaches for helping prevent and respond to biting, and a practice example.

Tantrums are episodes of crying, hitting, kicking, throwing objects, or falling to the floor. Tantrums are common and can be developmentally appropriate. They can also occur due to limited coping or language skills, efforts to seek attention or get their way, or avoid activities. We present three approaches for helping prevent and de-escalate tantrums.

Expanding early childhood programming is a global interest given the strong return on investment. Programming is most beneficial when these experiences are high quality, and high-quality experiences are associated with numerous long-term benefits. SPROUT was created to provide a scientifically based framework for identifying high-quality in early education settings.

STAR Read-Aloud Practices are designed to develop and strengthen young children’s awareness of and knowledge about print. They utilize evidence-based reading techniques developed from years of research.

A practitioner-friendly, scientifically based curricular supplement designed to develop and strengthen young children’s early foundations in language and literacy. Lessons are organized around adult-child readings of high-quality storybooks and supplement – not replace – an educator’s instruction. It is widely used in early childhood programs in the United States and internationally.

This book is an essential guide for those many individuals who serve as children’s first teachers and who understand, as we do, that interactive book reading is an important context for helping children learn and develop.

For more than 10 years, our research team has examined ways to facilitate emergent literacy development in young children in ways that explicitly foster children’s engagement with print. This book was written to provide the community with materials generated through several federally funded studies that investigate ways to increase the emergent literacy skills.