Current estimates are that more than one-third of the annual neonatal deaths worldwide occur in humanitarian and fragile settings (United Nations Population Fund 2015). In this article, we focus on the recent multistakeholder effort to produce the "Roadmap to Accelerate Progress for Every Newborn in Fragile and Humanitarian Settings…

Making the case that breastfeeding provides essential and long-lasting benefits for children and should be one of California's first investments in the healthy development of every child, this report assists state and county commissions of Proposition 10 (Families and Children First Act) in the development of effective strategies and integrated…

Discusses the importance of cultural sensitivity and specific cultural knowledge when providing care for infants and toddlers. Makes suggestions for responding to cultural differences. Describes dialogue and reflective-thinking strategies for identifying and responding to cultural differences. Asserts that caregivers need diversity training to see…

According to this author, when parents provide competent daily care, they are teaching infants what love and trust are. All the daily routines parents perform, including feeding, cleaning up, diapering, undressing, dressing and settling into sleep, help provide infants with emotional comfort as well as the courage to learn. This article also…

Noting that parents of infants and toddlers find child care substandard and expensive, and recognizing the importance of children's earliest experiences for later intellectual and emotional functioning, this policy brief examines what research reveals about the kinds of relationships, experiences, and environments that foster healthy child…

Featured article discusses feeding infants, advocating use of homemade baby food as more economical, healthy, environmentally friendly, tasty, and smoothing the transition to finger foods. Also presents innovative classroom techniques, such as detergent box totes, and a forum for open discussion of child care topics, such as student evaluation and…

Contends that cultural practices such as carrying the baby on the mother's back for prolonged periods can impact negatively on development of visual integration during the sensorimotor stage pathways by preventing adequate or enough crawling. Maintains that crawling is essential for cross- modality integration and that higher mental functions may…

Describes preliteracy skills in infants and toddlers and the ways adults encourage them, including communicating, incorporating floor and object play, and giving them a wide variety of real experiences. Asserts that caregivers can reassure parents by showing them how they encourage children's intellectual development on a daily basis. (KB)

This paper uses the work of some of the acknowledged geniuses of the 19th and 20th centuries to reflect upon the practices of educarers to encourage young children's creativity and exploratory thinking and to raise questions about philosophies of educare with infants and toddlers. Beginning and ending with Albert Einstein, the paper considers how…

Joseph Chilton Pearce, a writer who lectures internationally on child development, discusses the importance of the birth environment on infant development, the negative effects resulting from doctor-assisted births, his experiences in the births of his children, the importance of bonding, and the relationship between childbirth and childhood…

Examines Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), including: (1) story of a victim's family; (2) risk factors; (3) known preventive measures; (4) change in traditional behaviors to ensure infants are put to sleep on their backs; and (5) the role child care providers should play to educate and ensure the safety of clients. (SD)

Two articles discuss problems that infant caregivers deal with in their work place. The first article provides ideas on how to take care of and pacify a crying baby; the second discusses the experience of a caregiver in a group child-care situation which involved her own child, noting the transition from infant room to toddler room. (AA)

In this address, Richard W. Riley contends that parents' most important activity is to raise their children. Parents, educators and policymakers can work together to create a healthy and nurturing environment for all children in America. Young children absorb and later imitate adult activities they see, and they observe their parents more than…

This report of the Quality 2000 Initiative documents the quality crisis in early care and education in the United States, discussing the reasons for this crisis and suggesting a plan for improvement. Part 1 of the report: describes the mediocre quality of care cited in the Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes Study, the erosion of quality since 1980,…

Maintains that the Italian concept of "l'inserimento" suggests a different way of thinking about children's entry to out-of-home care and challenges American practitioners to rethink current interpretations of quality care, teachers' professional responsibilities, and the role of child-development theory. Concludes that cultural…