Infant and Toddler Development from Conception to Age 3: What Babies Ask of Us

Infants invite those caring for them to join as companions on an incredible journey. Infant and Toddler Development from Conception to Age 3 is a helpful guide to that journey. Each chapter taps a distinct area of research to shed light on babies' biological expectations for care and their amazing competence as active participants in that care. Because the shadow of adversity and trauma disrupts the journey for some, this book includes ways to help infants and families recover and heal. Exploring each domain of development, with policy and practice recommendations, the authors offer important insights into:

• How prenates "read" and adapt to characteristics of their environment.
• How fetus and mother respond in sync to a cascade of hormones that facilitate healthy birth, breastfeeding, bonding, and immune system development.
• How infants search for proximity to caring, responsive others as a means of regulating physiological systems and making friends.
• How infants gather statistics on language through interactions with companions.
• How infants learn as they investigate objects and people within everyday play and interactions.

Book Features:

• A complete picture of the dynamic nature of infant development from conception to 36 months of age.
• Draws from state-of-the-art science to shed new light on infants and toddlers as being amazingly aware, compassionate, and competent.
• A broad basis of information on which to make decisions about how to care for babies, written for both professionals and parents.
• Easy access to fascinating research findings that can be used to shape future policy in support of infants and families.
• User-friendly format includes "Closer Look" text boxes, photographs, illustrations, and figures.

Mary Jane Maguire-Fong is faculty emerita in early childhood education at American River College in Sacramento, California, and author of Teaching and Learning with Infants and Toddlers. Marsha Peralta is professor of early childhood education at Folsom Lake College in Folsom, CA.