Infant Development: A Topical Approach is a text for an infant development course that is organized around topics. This approach allows for coherent organization within domains such as sensorimotor, cognitive and brain, emotional, social and communicative development in infancy. In addition, there are chapters that cover research methods, theory, prenatal development, childbirth, health and risk, and family and culture, and the long-term effects of the infancy period. Similar to Alan Fogel's classic text, Infancy: Infant, family, and society, 6th Edition (Sloan Publishing), which is organized by ages and stages, Infant Development: A Topical Approach brings the same balance of careful scientific review of the literature, down-to-earth writing style that appeals to students, as well as many applied topics relevant to the life of infants and their families. These include infant maltreatment, attachment, poverty, infant mental health, and nutrition. Many topics are relevant to parenting such as prenatal maternal health, parental adaptation to a new baby, parental employment, and the effects of infants with special needs on families.