ABSTRACT
Newborns are endowed with gifts and abilities that attract responsive adults to care for and about them and allow them, in turn, to begin engaging in the back and forth, give and take of relating to others. It is in these early communications with parents and professional caregivers1 that young children begin to engage in a dance of relationships that teaches them lessons that can sustain them socially and emotionally for a lifetime (Shonkoff and Phillips 2000; Tronick 2007) (see Chapter 31). With a majority of young children – birth to age five – spending all or part of their days in early care and education programmes, it has become an essential role of professional caregivers, working alongside families, to engage positively with babies and young children as they develop an understanding of care (Howes et al. 1998). Children learn what it means to care, to be cared for, to be worthy of care, how to care for and about others, and that what they do is meaningful and its contribution valued; all necessary to achieve a sense of well-being (Raikes and Edwards 2009; Roberts 2010; Thompson 2014).
