When Young Children Need Help

Understanding and Addressing Emotional, Behavorial, and Developmental Challenges

This story-based book provides a framework to help early childhood professionals understand a range of emotional (like a child with dark moods or intense shyness), behavioral (such as a high-energy/low-focus or easily frustrated child), and developmental (including communication struggles) challenges in children age three to six.

Ranging from the classroom to the playground and back again, this book presents universal vignettes to dig deep and pinpoint common challenges children in early childhood settings face, identify steps that caregivers and educators can take to support children, and identify when a struggle goes beyond the norm.

While there are resources that, to some degree, share content with this book, many only focus on a limited wedge of topics related to emotional, behavioral, or developmental challenges. This book illuminates the nuts and bolts of intervention for children who struggle in a variety of ways. It explores the dilemmas of understanding and teaching children who have multiple and intertwined challenges, and it aims to help teachers understand and help the “whole child,” whether or not he or she carries a diagnosis. It offers guidance for ongoing implementation and a detailed approach for developing individualized profiles as teachers figure out which strategies to use.