Emphasizes the importance of understanding a child's development in order to be an effective teacher. Four chapters focus on the developmental domains. Consequently, many examples of Developmentally Appropriate Practice are woven through this text. Alignment with NAEYC standards gives the book an organizing structure and gives early childhood students a thorough introduction to the field. Chapter openers list the standards on which the chapter is based, while all five Professional Preparation standards are printed on the inside front cover of the text for students' and professors' reference. "Teach Intentionally" boxed features focus on the intentionality that effective early childhood teachers employ. Intentionality has been a focus of NAEYC and this feature familiarizes students with their responsibility to be deliberate and intentional in their practices. MyEducationLab prompts throughout the textbook's margins remind students to explore this online resource and take advantage of the extra features and learning tools therein, such as videos, artifacts, and accompanying assignable homework in Applications and Activities and in Building Teaching Skills.

Chapters open with guiding questions and vignettes that are aligned with the major lessons of the chapter and that focus readers' attention on what they are about to learn. These openers give students looks into real classroom scenarios and help bring the material they are about to read to life. "Check Your Understanding" boxed features lend students the opportunity to solidify their understanding of a major concept within a chapter before they go on to another section. Key term marginal definitions allows students to review chapters efficiently and to identify the most important vocabulary words and concepts in each chapter. An alphabetized list of key terms and their definitions appears at the end of each chapter. Three reoccurring case studies pepper the text with real-life examples from actual teachers leading three different learning environments. These examples liven the text and illustrate how teaching experiences differ with regards to age groups (infant/toddler, preschool and primary), diversity issues, and setting. MyEducationLab! To package this text with the course-specific version of MyEdLab use this ISBN: 0-136-10126-7.