Emotional Connections: How Relationships Guide Early Learning

As more children enter childcare at younger ages and for longer periods of time, it becomes more important for caregivers to understand how children are guided and shaped by the people who care for them. The relationships they experience in group care play a vital role for their future.

Emotional Connections translates new research on cognitive, social, and emotional development in the early years into the language of daily caregiving and teaching. The authors give trainers the information and tools they need to teach infant–toddler caregivers how to build responsive relationships with very young children and their families. They show how positive relationships are the context for helping babies and toddlers learn, communicate, and regulate behavior.

Emotional Connections materials are designed to supplement comprehensive training curricula, such as the Program for Infant/Toddler Caregivers (PITC). Each of the book’s ten modules presents key concepts in accessible language and offers exercises and activities designed specifically for adult learners.

Developed for use as a training resource in a variety of pre-service and in-service settings (community colleges, certification programs, center-based workshops, etc.), Emotional Connections is also an effective self-study resource.

Perry M. Butterfield, M.A., is retired faculty, Univ. of Colorado Medical School, Dept. of Psychiatry, where she served as Senior Research Associate to the Program for Early Developmental Studies.

Carole A. Martin, PhD, has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at Colorado College, Rutgers University, Trenton State College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the departments of psychology, human development and education. She directed a university laboratory daycare center and developed an interdisciplinary graduate training program for infant specialists.

Arleen Pratt Prairie, MEd. has taught Early Childhood Education in City Colleges of Chicago for twenty-five years. In her teaching she focuses on preschool education, infant and toddler care and brain development in the early years.