On Thursday, former North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt and Davidson County Representative Hugh Holliman visited Smart Start of Davidson County for a progress update about the School Readiness program. The program brings educators into children’s homes to help them build skills they need to succeed in school. Superintendents from the three local school systems were in attendance as they collaborate with Smart Start to provide the program.
Smart Start’s School Readiness program is a local version of Parents as Teachers, a national program that offers information, support, and encouragement to parents with young children to promote children’s healthy growth and development. The program brings school readiness educators like Bleasha Carroll into family’s homes to teach learning games and activities that develop the fine motor, gross motor, social-emotional, language, and cognitive skills children need to thrive in school.
Here’s some of what was said to a reporter from The Dispatch:
“I certainly appreciate the job that you’re all doing,” Holliman said to the Smart Start staff. “We think early childhood education is one of the best ways to get kids ready before they start school.”
Edna Amos is a school readiness specialist with Thomasville City Schools. “I am a lover of Smart Start,” she said. “We do believe that no matter what walks of life you are from, the core of every parent wants the best for their child.”
“I’m very proud of Smart Start. These are our children, the parent’s children, the community’s children and God’s children,” Hunt said. “We’ve just got to do a lot more. This works, this helps make our schools work. I am so proud of all you do in Davidson County.”
Read the article in The Dispatch.
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This is one of the many conclusions of a new report by The Urban Institute, Infants of Depressed Mothers Living in Poverty: Opportunities to Identify and Serve.
Key findings include:
- Eleven percent of infants living in poverty have a mother suffering from severe depression.
- Evidence suggests that depression can interfere with parenting, potentially leading to poor child development—setbacks that are particularly devastating during infancy.
- Compared with their peers with nondepressed mothers, infants living in poverty with severely depressed mothers are more likely to have mothers who also struggle with domestic violence and substance abuse, and who report being only in fair health.
- Infants living in poverty with depressed mothers receive similar prenatal care as their peers whose mothers are not depressed, but they are breastfed for shorter periods of time.
- Even though depression is treatable, many severely depressed mothers do not receive care.
- Many depressed mothers living in poverty are already connected to services, such as WIC, health care services, food stamps, and TANF. Every contact is an opportunity to identify depression and help parents seek treatment.
Read the abstract.
Read the full report.
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This just in from Natural Resources: Guidelines and Videos on Social-Emotional Skills for Young Children
The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) has several new resources available online, including:
- How Do I Decide? Series of Guidelines. The first two installments in this new series provide guidelines on: How to Choose a Social-Emotional Curriculum and When to Seek Outside Help for Children’s Problem Behavior.
- Online Videos: Two CSEFEL videos, Promoting Social Emotional Competence and Practical Strategies for Teaching Social Emotional Skills, can now be viewed online in their entirety.
Source: Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning – July 15, 2010
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Excellent video from The ZERO TO THREE Policy Center. It illustrates how early language and literacy development contributes to a child’s success throughout life.
Window to the World: Promoting Early Language and Literacy Development
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The American Prospect recently published a 22-page special report on early childhood literacy entitled “Reading by Grade Three.” It is an in-depth examination of the challenges policymakers, advocates, parents, and teachers face in ensuring that every young child in the U.S. has access to the essential resources for achieving literacy. The report focuses on the following goals:
- developing results-oriented and innovative solutions;
- targeted support for underserved, poor and minority students; and
- building systems that engage parents and teachers.
Read the report.
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