When Young Children Need Help: Understanding and Addressing Emotional, Behavioral, and Developmental Challenges

Deborah Hirschland’s When Young Children need Help: Understanding and Addressing Emotional, Behavioral, and Developmental Challenges explores the fundamentals of how to support three-to-six-year-olds who have emotional and behavioral problems, and provides ideas that can be used in a busy classroom environment. From handling kids with histories of neglect to helping when language is limited, this book is a ‘must’ for teachers and childcare providers working in diverse classrooms or situations.
The Education Shelf, Bookwatch

In this book, Deborah Hirschland shares her considerable experience, compassion, and wisdom so that teachers of young children might better support those many children who need special help. The book provides practical advice on how to observe so as to understand, how to assess so as to plan, and how to help so as to support a child's developing in ways that insure a child will thrive. Rejecting easy answers having to do with diagnostic labels as well as abstract discussions of theory, Hirschland explains in clear and interesting prose the meaning and practical value of key concepts, the host of strategies that are worth considering, and the process that we all need to go through in order to be of help. I recommend this wise and accessible book to anyone who teaches young children and especially to those who feel frustrated or unsatisfied in their work with young children our are in particular need of our help.
Eliot-Perason Departmet of Child Development Tufts Universit

Beautifully written and a delight to read, this invaluable new book will help early childhood educators everywhere to rediscover the strengths in struggling children, their parents, and themselves, and to learn new problem-solving processes that will become their own.
co-author of Touchpoints: Three to Six-Your Child's Emotiona

Deborah Hirschland’s new book, When Young Children Need Help, vividly illustrates the complexities faced by teachers who strive to meet the needs of children with many challenging and “hard to pin down” behaviors. Brought to life through actual classroom scenarios, the reader is drawn into examples of the many and varied struggles experienced through the powerful scenes Hirschland paints. Thankfully, however, the author does not leave the reader hanging. Rich with practical strategies, all supported by a comprehensive array of research from the field, Hirschland guides the practitioner through a bounty of helpful responses and interventions. Readers are provided with a generous amount of resources and foundational principles as well as handy maxims, such as “connect before you correct”, designed to keep them on track to use best practices in their work with young children. Utilizing this eminently readable book as a faithful resource in weekly teacher meetings, or in one’s own individual library, would be a wise strategy to support healthy child development in our preschool classrooms. Purchase the book for the school, place it on the most accessible shelf and take it down to refer to regularly!
Center for Parents and Teachers, Inc.

A much needed resource for teachers who are looking for guidance in their struggle to help difficult children in the early childhood classroom. When Young Children Need Help goes beyond star charts to help staff really look at kids in need and build intervention bridges that are strong enough to support their development, learning and emotional well being."