This comprehensive and applied textbook clearly describes and respects infant and toddler development through a relationship-based approach to early care and education.

Covering not only development, curriculum, and program planning, but also guidance and professionalism, this text promotes a relationship-based model for understanding how infants and toddlers grow and learn in typical and atypical ways. This new edition continues to emphasise the importance of families’ and teachers’ relationships and responsiveness in interactions with young children, the latest developmental research, an emphasis on child-centred planning, particularly strong coverage of infants and toddlers with special needs, and the effects of culture, families, and quality programs on infant-toddler development and interactions. Readers will come away with a deeper understanding of why, according to the science of child development, certain practices support or hinder an infant’s or toddler’s optimal development—and how to provide responsive, joyful, meaningful and lasting high-quality care.