For families of an infant leaving the NICU, nothinga s more exciting--and challenging--than the critical transition to home life with their baby. Support the NICU-to-home transition with this accessible book, the complete guide to helping parents meet their babya s special needs and promote optimal development in the first year after homecoming.

Invaluable for a wide range of professionals--including early interventionists, OTs, PTs, public health nurses, physicians, and social workers--this book is the key to providing family-centered, developmentally supportive guidance in the months after the NICU. Professionals will deepen their understanding of the emotional and physical challenges of the NICU experience, and theya ll get in-depth guidance on how to support parents effectively as they

• develop a loving and satisfying relationship with their baby
• manage the changes to their daily routines and home environment
• recognize, interpret, and respond to the babya s signals and behaviors
• actively encourage motor and language development
• support the babya s management of sleep/wake cycles
• identify concerns about the babya s development
• learn the timing, intensity, and amount of activity that work for their unique baby
• promote their babya s self-regulation
• locate and access community resources and social supports

To illuminate the incredible strength of parents of premature infants, the book includes powerful stories of real families who share their experiences of supporting and loving their babies in the NICU and beyond. Readers will also receive printable handouts to share with families--Coming Home: What to Expect; Reading Your Babya s Cues; Feeding Your Baby; Positioning and Handling Strategies; Communicating With Your Baby; Playing With Your Baby; Helping Your Baby Learn; and more--and lists of resources, websites, and organizations that provide additional information and support.

With this definitive guide from two leading experts in infant development and early intervention, professionals will provide sensitive, effective support and guidance to new parents as they make a smooth transition to home life and develop strong relationships with their babies."

Today's American families are more complex and diverse than ever before-and today s child and family professionals must be fully prepared to meet their needs. Interventionists educators, health care professionals, therapists, and social workers will get the strong foundation they need with the NEW edition of this trusted textbook, a comprehensive guide to working effectively and respectfully with contemporary families. Highly respected experts Marci Hanson and Eleanor Lynch have expanded and updated their bestselling text, weaving in cutting-edge research on social, demographic, and economic changes and connecting the research to best practices in family-centered care. With a strong emphasis on family resilience, this book gets preservice and in-service professionals ready to work with a broad range of families with diverse structures, backgrounds, and circumstances communicate and collaborate effectively with every family they serve support families of children with disabilities advance strong parent-child attachment and interactions match services and supports with each family s desired goals and outcomes address risk factors such as poverty, addiction, and violence promote the mental health of young children and their parents apply human development theories in their work with children defuse common sources of tension between families and professionals With this cornerstone textbook, the new generation of child and family professionals will have the research and practical guidance they need to improve the lives and outcomes of 21st-century families. WHAT'S NEW Timely new information on: Demographic changes in the past decade Cultural and linguistic diversity Economic issues caused by the recession The needs of infants and very young children Infant mental health