Brown (educational studies, U. of South Carolina, Columbia) et al. assemble 15 chapters that use research to explain how early childhood professionals can work with children from birth to age five on social competence. Chapters cover the nature and development of their emerging peer-related social competence, including classroom influences and family roles, and strategies for assessment and intervention for specific developmental difficulties and disabilities. Contributors are researchers and scholars in education, child development and family studies, communication disorders, special education, and other fields, from the US. The book serves as an update to the volume, Social Competence of Young Children with Disabilities: Issues and Strategies for Intervention, from 1992. Several new chapters have been added, on cultural and linguistic influences, friendships, interventions in general early childhood classrooms, a social-emotional curriculum for children at risk for school failure, and interventions for children with challenging behaviors, autism spectrum disorders, severe disabilities, and family-based interventions. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)