This article is an excerpt from the "ZERO TO THREE Critical Competencies for Infant-Toddler Educators"[TM] Course Curriculum, module SE-6: Promoting Children's Sense of Self and Belonging. The course supports development of the essential skills educators need to optimize the social-emotional, cognitive, and language and literacy…

The Early Learning Guidelines: Nebraska's Birth to Five Learning and Development Standards (hereafter referred to as the Guidelines) is a resource to provide information about young children's learning and development. The Guidelines are intended to assist adults in planning and providing meaningful learning experiences and environments for…

Parents responding to the ZERO TO THREE Parenting Infants and Toddlers Today poll showed excellent understanding of early childhood development, but they also underestimated young infants' emotional sensitivity and overestimated toddlers' capacities for self-regulation. This article reviews these results along with research findings on the complex…

Psychometric and utility studies on Social Emotional Assessment Measure (SEAM), an innovative tool for assessing and monitoring social-emotional and behavioral development in infants and toddlers with disabilities, were conducted. The Infant and Toddler SEAM intervals were the study focus, using mixed methods, including item response theory…

At the same time young babies are developing an understanding of self as separate from others--what it means to be "me"--many also face having to negotiate living, learning, growing, and developing as part of a group--what it means to be "we". This is true for more than half of all infants in the United States under the age of…

Far from egocentric, infants and toddlers advance significantly in their understanding of others' feelings, desires, goals, intentions, preferences, and views during the first 2 years of life. In so doing, they establish the foundation for later social and emotional understanding. This article surveys those accomplishments, speculates about how…

Over the course of the past decade, the state of Louisiana has developed several documents to articulate expectations for children's learning and development and provide guidance for early childhood educators. The experiences and skills that children develop during the early years are critically important to their success later in school. What…

The authors review the research literature on breastfeeding benefits and promotion. Although breastfeeding confers numerous benefits to infants, mothers and society, the authors conclude that breastfeeding promotion efforts sometimes overstate or misrepresent what the research actually supports about the benefits of breastfeeding. Psychological or…

This article explores how visual impairment might impact on early social and emotional development including self-awareness and communication with others. Some children show a "developmental setback" and other worrying developmental trajectories in the early years, including autistic related behaviours and autistic spectrum disorders.…

This volume explores the key developmental transitions that take place as 1- to 3-year-olds leave infancy behind and begin to develop the social and emotional knowledge, skills, and regulatory abilities of early childhood. Leading investigators examine the multiple, interacting factors that lead to socioemotional competence in this pivotal period,…

This paper traces some of the major theories and research findings concerning the development of self-identity during the first two years of life. The discussion begins with some basic assumptions of identity formation, offers an historical perspective with discussion of William James' major aspects of self, and concludes with observations on the…

Explains why early interactions are so vital in teaching young children about themselves, their world, and success. Explores the function of internal and external motivation to development, and the importance of positive feedback to development of children's trust and self-confidence. (HTH)

This document consists of a compilation of three separate 4-page brochures by the same authors: (1) understanding babies and toddlers; (2) understanding three to six-year olds; (3) disciplining preschoolers. The first brochure covers bonding and attachment, infant temperament, patterns of growth, and the characteristics of children during the…

A review of Anxiety and Ego Formation in Infancy" (International Universities Press), by Sylvia Brody and Sidney Axelrod. (RY)

A review of the development of self and empathy in infancy in general is followed by discussion of atypical development, noting that autistic children have a general deficit in development of empathic capacity and physical and representational sense of self. Specific interventions to enhance the development of both sense of self and empathic…