Author Description

The Child's Curriculum Group was created by former nursery school teachers concerned about reduction of local government support for the schools they had nurtured. They have a lifelong commitment to excellent provision for young children and their families and they urge recognition of the benefits to a child and their lifetime of learning when parents and nursery educators nourish companionship in discovery of meaning for work and play in early years. The child's enthusiasm inspires development of a generous and valued 'common sense' in the community. The editors of our book are academics who investigate how the young child shares human vitality and learning. Aline-Wendy Dunlop, Emeritus Professor in Education at Strathclyde University, is Scottish Coordinator for the Pedagogies of Educational Transitions Project (POET), and Vice President of Early Education. She was head teacher at Westfield Court Nursery School in Edinburgh. Jonathan Delafield-Butt is Senior Lecturer in Child Development in Education at Strathclyde on the neuroscience and psychology of human movement and its growth in affectionate care for meaning-making. Colwyn Trevarthen, Emeritus Professor in Psychology in Edinburgh, and Vice President of Early Education, is a psychobiologist with 50 years' experience in charting the development of communication from birth to symbolic communication by speech and writing. We invited experts in early education and care in different human worlds to share their experience of the strengths of children, and received wonderful contributions. We acknowledge the inspiration from the teachers who founded the Child's Curriculum project in 2006, and who continue to guide its progress.