Sharing Web Resources

     After reviewing the Zero to Three website, (2013), I liked the 2013 Federal policy on getting young children ready for school.  I particularly like the fact that it is recognized on a Federal level that young children’s earliest experiences, along with genetic impacts, form brain architecture and take place in the milieu of relationships with caring and nurturing adults, primarily parents.  I also learned that 6 million infants and toddlers spend time in child care, therefore caregivers indeed play a key role. These relationships foster the social and emotional skills, such as confidence, persistence, self-regulation, attentiveness, and ability to form relationships.  These important skills set infants and toddlers on the path to being confident learners, productive workers, and emotionally competent individuals. Emotions drive learning, as social-emotional and cognitive development interlink to form the solid foundation of early brain architecture.

     I also learned about more issues through the necessity in addressing the needs of infants and toddlers across the spectrum of delays and disabilities could be promoted through a “Meeting Early Milestones Challenge Fund.”  The goal is to encourage states and communities to build a more comprehensive network that could connect children with milder developmental disabilities and delays to beneficial treatment services.  In addition, it would underscore the importance of social and emotional development by increasing access to and the quality of Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health Services: Direct mental health services funding to increase the availability of mental health professionals trained to address the needs of infants and toddlers. It would also promote strategies to identify and treat maternal depression, beginning prenatally and expand Medicaid reimbursement for relationship-based mental health services (such as therapy provided to children and parents together).  The need to adopt policies and practices at the state and local level oriented toward the developmental needs of infants and toddlers, including assessment; health, mental health, and developmental services; and appropriate foster care practices is also strongly recommended.

     The aforementioned information is the type of information economists, neuroscientists, or politicians all would agree in funding for the benefit of early education.  In addition, President Obama pledges to give $1.6 billion to fund early childhood. 

     The Zero to Three Offers Recommendations for School-Readiness:

     My School Readiness Checklist • Someone who is just crazy about me: talks to me, sings to me, reads me books, plays finger games, lets me explore but is always there • Someone who does all these things when my parents are at work • Good food (even peas) • A place to call home • Being warm when it’s cold outside • Safe neighborhood • A doctor just for kids and one for my teeth (when I get them) • Lots of toys and books • Playing inside and outside • Parents who aren’t worried all the time • Someone who helps me when I can’t do what other kids do.

 

References

Zero to Three.  (2013).  PUTTING INFANTS AND TODDLERS ON THE PATH TO SCHOOL READINESS: An Agenda for the Administration and 113thCongress. Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/federal-policy/