This text aims to offer information on child development, looking at both research and theory, and practice. It focuses on how practitioners can apply developmental knowledge to assessment and intervention with children and families. The book begins with a theoretical framework for understanding the transactions between individual development and the child's wider environments, examining the crucial roles of attachment and parenting and the ecology of risk and protective factors. Chapters then detail normal behaviour and salient developmental tasks for infancy, toddlerhood, the pre-school period, and middle childhood. Case studies and observational examples bring the research to life and highlight special considerations for working with children with difficulties.