This book compiles specially commissioned articles about early childhood education written by experts in the field and students enrolled in the Early Childhood Studies Scheme at the University of North London. The book is divided into seven parts. Part 1 concerns how young children learn and includes articles on a developmental approach to the curriculum and the inclusion of play. Part 2 contains articles discussing how learning environments can support children and ensure that they all have equality of access and opportunity. Part 3 offers theoretical and practice-related articles on classroom observation, and notes that observation is a vital tool in the practitioner's repertoire. Part 4 examines the importance of talk in early learning and provides examples of how adults have structured situations to encourage children to talk. Part 5 contains articles and observation notes on emergent literacy, including developing an understanding of the reading process, early writing, and a study of one child's development. Part 6 examines how young children explore their world and represent it through drawing and painting, and how adults can scaffold their learning in a variety of ways. Part 7 deals with establishing a working partnership with parents as a key goal of many early childhood practitioners, and notes that more work needs to be done on understanding how different value systems and beliefs affect children, and on finding ways of holding a principled view of high quality care and education, while not negating the rights of people to their own beliefs. (KB)