DOUBLE TAP TO ZOOM WITH PHONE OR TABLET support growth have to be a good fit for that particular child. Approaches to intervention work well only when the people using them find ways to make them their own.   My intent, then, isn’t that you’ll finish this book knowing exactly what to do when a particular child is having difficulties. You will find plenty of strategies you can add to those you already like and use. But, just as impor- tantly, you’ll encounter some perspectives that may help you think more clearly about the challenging children you teach, and allow you to come up with your own creative approaches to supporting them and their families.   When Young Children Need Help is organized as follows. The chap- ters of part 1, “Getting Specific Before Getting to Work,” take a close look at the process of observation, reflection, and action planning. Then the book moves on to examine specific approaches used to target specific dif- ficulties. The six chapters of part 2, “Connection Is Key,” highlight the nature of work with children who struggle to connect with pleasure and communicate with ease. The chapters in part 3, “Addressing Problems in Self-Regulation,” put a spotlight on how we support kids who have trouble slowing down their bodies, focusing their minds, managing their feelings, and controlling their impulses. Part 4, “Putting It All Together,” begins by taking an integrative look at intervention through the story of a hard-to- help child with a mix of developmental challenges. Then the book’s final chapter celebrates the little steps that lead to big changes as it looks back on what has been explored and forward to new possibilities.   It is my hope that the ideas you’ll find throughout When Young Children Need Help will make those little steps easier to take and those big changes easier to believe in. I hope, too, that the children whose lives and struggles fill its pages will bring those ideas to life. All of these youngsters—and their families—have been heavily disguised. Their issues, their classrooms, and the interventions used to help them, however, are absolutely real.   Anyone who writes about young children and their caregivers runs into a problem: it’s hard to find an efficient yet inclusive language with which to describe early childhood work. In this book, I use the word teacher to stand in for toddler, preschool, and kindergarten teachers, program-based child care staff, and family child care providers. Parents stands in for moth- ers, fathers, grandparents, aunts and uncles, foster parents, and any other adults who anchor life at home. Finally, classroom and school represent all early care and education settings. In addition, I generally alternate the pro- nouns he and she from chapter to chapter to offer gender-neutral language without having to repeatedly use he or she and his or her. COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL Introduction xix