A few weeks ago, I received the latest edition of the Zero To Three Journal an occurrence that often leads me to make a warm cup of tea and curl up for an evening of thought-provoking reading. And, while this may make my social life sound a bit lacking, with this last edition, I quickly realized that by sharing with my readers the articles and resources that I found to be most intriguing, most useful and most relevant, my time spent thumbing through the pages of my highly anticipated ZTT journal could now benefit others!

Imagine my joy when I saw that the latest edition of ZTT was focused on “Challenging Behaviors”! As both a psychotherapist and a mental health consultant to childcare programs, understanding and responding to “challenging behaviors” is one of the cornerstones of my work. Because of that, I often find myself searching for books, resources, websites - in addition to abilitypath.org- that help to promote and enhance quality early care and education. And while I recognize that “quality care” is a relative term and can be defined in many different ways, for me, quality care and early education is defined as care and education that is built upon, and takes into account, the central importance of relationships in a young child’s life. Not surprising from someone who focuses on enhancing relationships for a living. So, when I came across an article highlighting The Center on Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSE-FEL) (http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csefel/), I wanted to learn more. This federally funded program was established in 2001 with the purpose of creating and disseminating information and materials to teachers in support of children’s social-emotional development, focusing on ages 2-5. Since then, CSEFEL has expanded to include materials and resources that focus on building the capacity of early care educators and parents to support the social-emotional development of children birth to 5. I especially like their book list (http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csefel/documents/booklist.pdf )- a comprehensive list of children’s books pertaining to various social-emotional related topics, i.e., loss, friendships, feelings, problem solving and self-confidence. This website is definitely worth a look, especially for teachers and caregivers looking for ideas and resources for use in the classroom!