Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

"This book is an attempt to present, in an organized form, an outline of the new science of child study for investigators, students, teachers, and parents. It is the fruit of fourteen years' experience in studying and teaching child study, and of seven years' experience as a father. Most of the work has been presented successfully, in nearly its present form, to normal students. Prominence is given to the foundations of child study in other sciences, and to the more general, permanent, and practical truths thus far revealed by students of children. The treatment of each topic is, in a way, complete in itself, though related to every other and intended to be worked out more completely by reading, observation, experiment, and discussion. It is hoped that the plan of the book will adapt itself to the use of intelligent parents and to classes in normal schools and universities, with varying preparation and amount of time to devote to the subject."--Preface

Excerpt from Fundamentals of Child Study: A Discussion of Instincts and Other Factors in Human Development With Practical Applications This book is an attempt to present, in an organized form, an outline of the new science of child study for investigators, students, teachers, and parents. It is the fruit of fourteen years' experience in studying and teaching child study, and of seven years' experience as a father. Most of the work has been presented successfully, in nearly its present form, to normal students. The great task of the author has been to decide what to leave out of the book. Many paragraphs might easily have been expanded into chapters. It was the original intention to summarize all the principal child-study investigations that have been made. Lack of space and the fact that much of the literature of child study is in the nature of preliminary studies likely to be superseded by later investigations, caused this plan to be abandoned; hence only a few specific facts and figures are quoted, while prominence is given to the foundations of child study in other sciences, and to the more general, permanent, and practical truths thus far revealed by students of children. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Electronic Inspection Copy available for instructors here The Second Edition of An Introduction to Child Development has been fully updated to provide a comprehensive survey of the main areas of child development, from infancy through to adolescence. Equipping students with an appreciation of critical issues in the field and an understanding of empirical research that bears on the study of children, the text provides balanced coverage of topics and theoretical perspectives that represent both classic and cutting edge work in child development. In terms of new content, it now covers more on the biological foundations of development, plus new chapters on moral development and applied developmental psychology. The Second Edition includes the following features: - learning points - section & chapter summaries, - end-of-chapter glossaries - suggestions for further reading - sample multiple choice questions - sidebars featuring in depth discussions of key research findings or points of debate within the field of child development. The text comes with a dedicated website with resources for both students and instructors.

"This book is an attempt to present, in an organized form, an outline of the new science of child study for investigators, students, teachers, and parents. It is the fruit of fourteen years' experience in studying and teaching child study, and of seven years' experience as a father. Most of the work has been presented successfully, in nearly its present form, to normal students. Prominence is given to the foundations of child study in other sciences, and to the more general, permanent, and practical truths thus far revealed by students of children. The treatment of each topic is, in a way, complete in itself, though related to every other and intended to be worked out more completely by reading, observation, experiment, and discussion. It is hoped that the plan of the book will adapt itself to the use of intelligent parents and to classes in normal schools and universities, with varying preparation and amount of time to devote to the subject."--Preface