Early Childhood Development: A Multicultural Perspective, 6/e addresses both typical and atypical child development from birth through age eight. This text highlights the diversity of child development, preparing professionals to meet the unique needs of children from a wide variety of backgrounds. * A new emphasis on neuroscience and brain research helps us to understand so much better how children think, learn, feel, and behave. * Every chapter includes at least one new section on how the brain contributes to advances in physical, cognitive, linguistic, social, or emotional development across age groups. * An extensive section on assessment has been added. * Clinical and classroom-based methods for assessing learning and development of young children are presented. * The use of assessment data in teaching and parenting are fully explored. * A more extensive examination of toddlerhood, as a distinct period of development, is included. Newly-discovered advancements of children between the ages of 18 months and 3 years are profiled.* The book contains discussions of more than 800 new research studies and articles on early childhood development that have been published since the last edition.