A ‘patchwork of services’: Why do young children experience so many transitions?

This chapter explores the history of how services and education for young children have developed in such a fragmented way, leading to so many potential transitions for babies and children up to the age of five and beyond. It also considers how research and theories about children’s experience of transition can help us, as practitioners, to respond better to their needs while continuing to challenge the expectation that excessive transitions are normal – and acceptable – in a young child’s life.