Vol 43 No 4 – This Issue and Why It Matters

Creating a more equitable and supportive early childhood field that meets the increasingly diverse and complex needs of children and families will require new ways of thinking, collaborating, and involving stakeholders at all levels of planning and implementation. The articles in this issue of the ZERO TO THREE Journal highlight some of the innovative work happening around the country, across a variety of contexts and settings. The authors describe:

• Strategies used by HealthySteps specialists to support children with varied and unique needs, such as those in unstable housing, rural communities, children in foster care, adolescent parents, and other complex circumstances.
• Examples of an integrated approach to the assessment, evaluation, and diagnosis of disorders in infancy and early childhood that can be implemented wherever there are young children who have experienced early life stressors.
• State-level efforts in Massachusetts to strengthen, diversify, and expand the infant and early childhood mental health workforce across the promotion, prevention, and intervention continuum of care.
• New Mexico’s innovative initiative to create culturally informed, culturally responsive, and high-quality professional development for the early childhood community through transdisciplinary partnerships across the state.
• The value in and opportunity for occupational therapists to address the gaps in care for mothers after perinatal loss.
• Emerging research examining the relationship between reflective supervision/consultation and the prevention of burnout among early childhood education professionals.

We are also pleased to share two new, valuable resources from ZERO TO THREE: an article summarizing the latest research on equity-based math instructional approaches that provides a rationale for translating and applying a set of 10 specific teaching practices to toddler/preschool early learning settings; and an excerpt from Early Connections: A Parent

Café Curriculum From ZERO TO THREE, developed with funding from the Linda I. Garrity Trust. The curriculum provides research-based parenting practices that support strong parent–child relationships and healthy child development. It will be available in the ZERO TO THREE BOOKSTORE at zerotothree.org/bookstore.

To stay up to date on the latest information and news from ZERO TO THREE, please visit zerotothree.org.

Stefanie Powers, Editor-in-Chief

spowers@zerotothree.org