Today is Arbor Day, a holiday pioneered by Nebraska’s J. Sterling Morton in 1872. Morton started the holiday to beautify Nebraska’s prairies, which naturally lacked trees. Morton recognized that trees would help Nebraska farmers create windbreaks and conserve soil, as well as make the state appear less desolate to investors and others passing through.
Toxic stress in families with young children is rarely the product of a single cause, but a confluence of factors that contribute to a breakdown in familial bonding. The presence of outright abuse or neglect, domestic violence, substance abuse or depression in the family are, of course, obvious signs of that breakdown, and effectively undercut the parent-child bond as a crucial source of emotional stability for young children.
April 6-12 is the Week of the Young Child, sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and Nebraska AEYC. “Early Years Are Learning Years” is the focus this year.
Do you remember songs from your childhood? Does hearing a particular song evoke memories of people, events or places in your past? Dick Clark said music is the soundtrack of our lives, and just as music can have a powerful effect on us as adults, it can have an equally strong impact on the developing brains of young children.
When kids get to be kids—explore their environment, interact with their parents and caregivers, and learn through play—they flourish with curiosity and happiness. Like the little boy in the picture who is peeking for ducks, flowers and maybe even a frog as he explores the National Garden at the U.S. Capitol, children enjoy and grow in environments that are safe and full of enriching educational opportunities.
Speaking directly to babies and toddlers in rich, complex sentences like this one will help them build language and vocabulary skills by connecting words and meaning, and learning through context, said Stanford researcher Anne Fernald at a symposium last week.
Science and data drive our work. A child’s ability to learn is built upon a neurological foundation that begins before birth and is largely in place by age 5. The quality of a child’s earliest experiences, interactions and relationships physically shape the neural architecture of the developing brain during those first five years.