Transitions are essentially changes in relation to physical locations, routines and experiences. This explanation from 2012 still appropriately identifies some of the key transitions in early childhood. Transitions happen whenever children switch from parent to educator, move from place to place, or change from one activity to another. However, since 2012, we have become more aware of the significance of different transitions and the impact they can have on many other aspects of a child’s life. This chapter will start by defining what transitions are in early childhood and the different transitions that occur for most children into, within and beyond the ECEC service. Individual children respond differently to transitions so we will explore how both large and smaller transitions can impact and influence some children. This chapter will conclude with the importance of maintaining high expectations for all children, through embedding different strategies that can be used to support all children during transitions, whether they are large transitions in early childhood or smaller transitions during the day.

This chapter explores the rationale behind, and the importance of understanding, the unique profiles of each child being cared for, across early childhood settings. The purpose of this is to frame ways in which all children can be supported to achieve the best developmental, educational and wellbeing outcomes possible, now and in the future. Drawing on the principles and frameworks discussed in Chapter 1, this chapter will support further understanding of the importance of individualised care and education for every child.

Routines are part of everyday life. Essentially a routine is a sequence of actions that is followed regularly, although not always with the same frequency. For example, some routines are part of every day, while others may occur weekly or even less frequently. Some people are comfortable with a framework of their day and prefer a flexible approach to routines. Others prefer a more rigid schedule, and routines are part of that fixed plan. However, there are some people who find routines challenging, and require additional support for these to be a successful part of the day. This chapter will explore some of the daily routines that are part of a child’s life, both within and outside the ECEC service. It will include what routines are, why they are important, challenges some children (and adults) might experience, and strategies that may provide additional support for routines to become less difficult, and more seamlessly embedded in the day.

Drawing on a series of sixteen focus groups with Brazilian and Argentine citizens from low-income groups in four cities, this chapter documents the challenges individuals face when trying to access public health and early childhood education benefits. The chapter provides a conceptual framework for classifying citizen responses to these challenges. It argues that while some citizens exit from seeking access to public services, an important response is what the authors call "state-centric persistence": the act of repeatedly and directly engaging with government offices or officials after an initial failed attempt. The focus group narratives illustrate that this form of persistence is often necessary for successful access and that it is distinct from other options like giving up or turning to private alternatives. The chapter also uses survey data to show widespread belief in the usefulness of state-centric persistence.

Collaboration is essential to inclusive practice, ensuring that children with disabilities, developmental differences and neurodivergence receive holistic, coordinated and high-quality support. A collaborative, team-based approach allows children to experience inclusive, responsive learning environments where interventions are seamlessly integrated into their everyday experiences. Research has demonstrated that when educators, allied health professionals, and families work together, children’s learning and development are enhanced, leading to greater participation, engagement and wellbeing.

This chapter provides a historical overview of social welfare provision in Brazil and Argentina. It details how both countries, in the early twentieth century, established welfare systems that were largely regressive and favored formal workers and privileged groups. The chapter then describes the social policy expansions that have occurred in recent decades, particularly since the countries’ transitions to democracy in the 1980s. While these reforms have expanded access to previously excluded populations, the chapter notes that uneven access persists despite these new commitments. It also summarizes the current state of public provision of health care, especially medication for chronic illness, and early childhood education in each country.

The early years of a child’s life represent a critical period of development where identities form, relationships flourish and foundations for lifelong learning are established. Within this formative landscape, inclusion emerges not only as an educational approach but as a fundamental human right and ethical imperative. In Australian early childhood contexts, inclusive practice exists at the intersection of policy, pedagogy and personal commitment. This chapter establishes the conceptual underpinnings of inclusion and inclusive practice and invites the reader to consider inclusion not as an additional responsibility, but as the very essence of quality early childhood education and care. By creating environments where every child experiences belonging, participation and growth, we honour each individual child, while also laying the groundwork for a more equitable society.

Play is a key dimension of early childhood education. How play is conceptualised and how a teacher uses play to support curriculum activities have a bearing on what a child experiences. We know from research that play is discussed in different ways in different countries, and also that play is presented in different ways in education curricula around the world.

The formative years of life provide the most important elements to equip children with the capacity to learn. Therefore, underpinnings for art pedagogy for Australian First Nations early childhood education should ensure that educators and teachers may contribute environmental foundations for children’s learning while ensuring that children have effective resources to prepare them for an ever-changing world. The challenge is balancing the expectations of the home with the expectations of teaching and learning in early childhood educational settings.

Most simply, the words ‘pedagogy and care’ capture and describe the core work that is done in the earliest years of education with very young children. Early childhood education (ECE) shares the same general aims as primary, secondary and tertiary education, with an overarching focus on learning and development. Educators working with infants and toddlers practice in a space where pedagogy and care are inextricably linked. It could thus be argued that ideas about pedagogy in relation to infants and toddlers are hardest to reconcile. This challenge may be due to the particular history of infants and toddlers as the youngest children in society, driven by discourses of maternalism and inherently tied to an image of their place in the home, where they were for many centuries. However, infants and toddlers are attending ECE settings in ever-increasing numbers and upholding their right to quality pedagogy is a professional responsibility of all ECE services, leaders and educators.

For many adults, the idea that infants and toddlers are ‘knowers, thinkers and theorisers’ is a strange one. Such concepts are often associated with older children whose abilities to build and express understandings are more evident and align more readily with traditional ideas about learning and teaching. Furthermore, cognitive states and processes such as ‘knowing’, ‘thinking’ and ‘understanding’ are not visible in the same way that physical, social and emotional behaviours. This means that they have to be inferred and interpreted, especially when pre-verbal infants and toddlers cannot tell you what is going on in their heads. Together these challenges may result in a deficit view that, instead of seeing infants and toddlers as active and capable learners, positions very young as waiting to learn. Also, an emphasis on meeting physical and emotional needs may come at the cost of overlooking infants and toddlers cognitive capabilities and potentials.

Human emotional responses are a complex mixture of physiological, cognitive, social and communicative activity. Emotional activity occurs in response to inner and outer worlds and is deeply shaped by the social and cultural environments in which it is embedded. Very young children experience (and learn about) emotions by feeling, understanding and showing them. These sophisticated emotional capabilities lay the groundwork for co-creating social affective relationships with important people in their lives. As the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) states, when educators tune into and try to understand children’s emotions and feelings within respectful and reciprocal relationships, they support their learning, development and wellbeing. Emotional wellbeing can be seen as the glue that holds children’s learning and development together. Similarly, an educator’s emotional wellbeing can bind their professional learning, development and satisfaction together. Without emotional wellbeing, learning and development for both children and educators can be negatively impacted.

The environments we create for the infants and toddlers in early childhood education (ECE) settings are critically important because they shape the daily lived experience of children and educators, and create the conditions for children’s interactions, wellbeing, engagement, learning and development. ECE environments are not neutral, nor are they natural. They are constructed in specific ways for specific purposes and are a representation of our philosophy that ‘speaks’ to children, educators and families about our image of the child, about the value we place on family, culture and community, and about our beliefs regarding teaching and learning. ECE environments are political because they influence the possibilities for interactions, relationships, empowerment and agency.

This chapter explores the value of the arts in the lives of very young children in early childhood education settings. It is hard to imagine a more joyful or rich opportunity for connection, expression and learning in early childhood than the arts. Humanity has always created art in a range of forms for a range of purposes and the youngest children are innately attracted to engage in music, dance, drama, and visual arts experiences.

In contemporary Australian society, the word ‘quality’ is ever-present in professional and political discussions about early childhood education. Educators and families are told that ‘quality is important’; curriculum documents, such as Australia’s Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), aim to enhance quality; services are rated for the quality of education and care that they deliver; and governments regulate service conditions and provisions in order to facilitate the provision of high quality practice. Together, these social, professional and political structures communicate a strong message that quality matters for young children’s learning and wellbeing.

This chapter takes a different approach to common ECE perspectives on physical development that, for example, focus on the stages of achievement of fine and gross motor developmental milestones. Instead, we focus on the bodily functions, movement and deep physical learning that are central to infant–toddler pedagogy. This is because embodied health and wellbeing in the first three years of life are the foundations for ongoing holistic learning and lifelong outcomes. The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) acknowledges this through its recognition that cognitive, linguistic, physical, social, emotional, personal, spiritual and creative aspects of learning are all intricately interwoven and interrelated. Promoting physical health for holistic wellbeing reflects this view by acknowledging the whole body as the physical home of all these parts. The brain is the ‘control centre’ for many of the complex integrated systems within the body, including the nervous and sensory systems, that establish and guide development.