Young children's feeding issues can be a complex challenge for early childhood professionals, especially since most get little to no training addressing this key developmental area. Now there's a single comprehensive resource that provides early childhood educators and interventionists with specific, practical, research-based guidance on resolving a wide range of feeding issues.

Ideal for a wide range of professionals working with young children birth-5 years across school, home, and child care settings, this book-and-CD set gives readers in-depth background information, how-to strategies, and helpful tools for addressing feeding challenges. Integrating the dual perspectives of the authors--a child development expert and an early childhood special education expert--the book helps readers

• understand the entire process of feeding development and how feeding affects early childhood development
• gain familiarity with variations in feeding contexts, including diverse cultural and at-risk groups and their impact on feeding choices and attitudes
• support children with specific feeding issues (see below) with specialized, evidence-based interventions and strategies
• learn the basics of screening and assessment procedures and widely used instruments
• develop appropriate, individualized feeding plans that align with children's IEPs and IFSPs
• strengthen collaboration between parents, caregivers, and professionals on a child's feeding team
• monitor feeding progress through anecdotal records, observations, and data-based approaches

With almost 50 pages of printable tools, forms, and handouts, the included CD-ROM gives professionals practical help with every step of improving children's feeding issues. Professionals will get daily feeding logs, recordkeeping forms, quick-guides to feeding milestones and red flags, and tip sheets on critical issues such as breastfeeding, feeding team requirements, and positioning strategies and specialized feeding equipment.

A vital resource for every member of a child's feeding team, this much-needed guidebook will help readers resolve one of the most critical issues in early childhood development--and ensure better overall outcomes for young children.

Help young children with

• risk factors for feeding difficulties
• sensory-based feeding issues
• oral motor difficulties
• neurological disorders
• anatomical differences
• feeding requirements

Deborah A. Bruns is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of assessment and intervention in early childhood special education, working with families and program leadership. Dr. Bruns's research agenda reflect her primary areas of teaching including the use of play-based assessment as a teaching tool, examining feeding development of young children with and without disabilities and parent-professional relationships in early intervention. She is also Principal Investigator of the Tracking Rare Incidence Syndromes (TRIS) project.

She serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Early Intervention, Early Childhood Research & Practice, Neonatal Network and Young Exceptional Children. Dr. Bruns is active at the state and national levels in the Division for Early Childhood. She is also a member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Stacy D. Thompson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale specializing in Child Development. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of developmental assessment, infant and children's development, and early intervention within the context of the family. Dr. Thompson's research interests include feeding and interventions for families and caregivers, risk-taking behaviors in adolescence, fathers of infants born to adolescent mothers, and quality care for young children.

I am a member of the Society for Research on Child Development (SRCD), Division for Early Childhood, and National Council on Family Relations (NCFR).

Dr. Laurie Dinnebeil is a Professor and holds the Daso Herb Chair in Inclusive Early Childhood Education. She was a preschool special education for five years before entering higher education. She has taught a range of undergraduate and graduate courses related to early childhood education and early childhood special education and has published extensively in the area of itinerant ECSE service delivery. Dr. Dinnebeil is a proficient grant writer, having secured over $6 million in national and state funding over the past 15 years.

Dr. Dinnebeil is very active in the field of early childhood special education at the local, state, and national levels. She is a past president of the Council for Exceptional Children's Division for Early Childhood and a past president of the Ohio Higher Education Consortium for Early Childhood Education. She is Associate Editor for Topics in Early Childhood Special Education and serves on editorial boards for numerous academic journals related to early childhood education and special education. Dr. Dinnebeil is active in the local, state, and national early childhood education communities. She is a 2002 Mid-Career Fellow for Zero to Three. She also has college administrative experience as a department chair and associate dean for graduate studies and research.