Session 4: Early Childhood Development
Wednesday, September 26

Major Themes to Be Covered

1. The importance of brain development in the first five years of life and the role that early experience plays in this process.

2. Understanding child development from a systems perspective highlights the important role that family relationships and the family system play in promoting optimal development, as well as the role that communities and the larger society play in the life of the child and family.

3. The important impact of early health and development on later health and development, and opportunities to promote more optimal developmental pathways.

4. Brain development and public investment are not well synchronized, early childhood provides a great return on investment, and early childhood interventions can be cost effective.

5. Giving children a healthy start by promoting optimal development from birth requires attention to risk and protective factors in families and communities that influence birth outcomes, that provide for optimal parenting environments, and support family development.

6. The primacy of the relationship context of early childhood, particularly the young child’s attachment with parents and other primary caregivers, on setting in place the emotional scaffolding for human development.

7. Successful early childhood initiatives take advantage of family and community members in the promotion of optimal development: mothers and fathers, grandparents, childcare providers, and other caring adults in neighborhoods, schools, parks, libraries, family resource programs, and faith communities.

8. State and community-wide initiatives to support the development of young children are proliferating across the US, and hold the promise of creating the bridges that all children need to have a healthy start, and enter school ready to learn. The quality of those programs depends on staff who have a solid understanding of early development, critical elements of healthy parent-child relationships, and the importance of delivering service in a way that emphasizes relationship at every level of the system.

Students Will Learn

1. Why early childhood is such an important time and why families and communities are focusing more attention on this critical developmental period.

2. Why the community has a big stake in empowering families to encourage positive early child development.

3. How early child development has become a focus of national, state and local policy.

4. What major new initiatives have been launched to support families with young children - the general policy strategy of building a bridge from birth to school.

5. Examples of how school districts have created comprehensive early childhood education and support programs and initiatives.

6. Example of how family resource centers, hospitals, and other community-based organizations can serve an important role of coordinating and integrating services, and creating a new system for children.

Required Readings

Erickson MF, Kurz-Riemer K. 1999. A solid foundation (pp. 27-51) & Strengthening family support networks (pp. 113-147). Infants, Toddlers, and Families: A Framework for Support and Intervention. New York: Guilford Press.

Halfon N, Gonzalez R, Hochstein M. 1999. Building Bridges for California’s Young Children: A 12-Point Agenda to Enhance Proposition 10. Oakland, CA: California Policy Research Center, University of California.

Shonkoff JP, Philips DA. 2000. Introduction (pp. 19-38). From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Suggested Readings

Berlin L, O’Neal C, Brooks-Gunn J. 1998. What makes early intervention programs work: The programs, their participants and their interactions. Zero to Three, 18(2):4-15.

Erickson MF, Egeland B. 1999. The STEEP Program: Linking theory and research to practice. In: MF Erickson, R Weinberg. (Eds.), Zero to Three, 20(2):11-16.

Zuckerman B, Kahn R. 2000. Pathways to early child health and development (pp. 87-121). In: S Danziger, J Waldfogel (Eds.), Securing the Future: Investing in Children from Birth to College. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.