This article is excerpted from "Who's Watching the Babies? Improving the Quality of Family, Friend, and Neighbor Care" by Douglas R. Powell ("ZERO TO THREE," 2008). The article explores questions about program development and implementation strategies for supporting Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) caregivers: How do programs and their host…

ZERO TO THREE's 2009 parent survey, "Parenting Infants and Toddlers Today," revealed that 25% of all parents surveyed had experienced child care-related hardships as a result of the recent economic downturn. The result is a significant number of children who are experiencing changes in their child care arrangements. Transitions into, and out of,…

This article tells the story of the 4-year consensus-building process to design quality standards for the field of family child care. Working with the National Association for Family Child Care, the Family Child Care Project at Wheelock College was funded to create an accreditation system for home-based child care programs using innovative methods…

Children may enter group care at very young ages. Developmentally, newborns (from birth to 4 months old) offer unique opportunities and challenges for child care providers. Are child care programs ready? Little information is available on providing group care to children at this critical developmental stage. This article explores the challenges of…

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…

American families are affected by a complex array of community, financial, health, and educational stressors. Unfortunately, social policies in the United States have not kept pace with societal demands. The nation is, as a result, in a state of disequilibrium wherein social policies are not in synchrony with the realities of contemporary family…

Research suggests what many parents and early care and education staff already know: Significant numbers of young children are struggling with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges that negatively impact their functioning as family members, friends, and learners. This article explores how caregivers can foster developmental mastery and…

This article surveys existing research on the role of humor in early childhood. Babies and toddlers use humor to develop, apply, and expand their understanding of existing concepts; define themselves; and establish relationships with peers and caregivers. Humor helps young children view stressful situations in a nonthreatening way. As soon as…

This article re-evaluates the concept of "difficult temperament," documenting the difficulty of differentiating normal difficult behavior from difficult temperament, and difficult temperament from diagnosable psychiatric disorder. Researchers and clinicians acknowledge that childhood aggression is occurring with greater frequency and at younger…