Sharing Web Resources

I explored the Zero-to-Three website. One of the most important section of the website for my professional growth was the section about play. I think promoting play in a child care setting is still one of the toughest things to explain to parents and policy makers. The website calls play "the true work of childhood" (Zero-to-Three). As a early childhood professional, I understand the importance of play. However, the website also offers many links to explore different areas of how play promotes development and gives information about how play can be used to communicate with children.

Another great resource that I found at the website over the past view weeks is promoting social and emotional development. While working with children, I came across many children that need to emotional support. Finding more information about how to respond to challenging and how to use children's curiosity to help them explore the world around them, helped me gain perspective on how to help children better handle their emotion.

When I explored how the website promotes how policy makers and economists helped promote early childhood education, I came across a very interesting document about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Act offers funds to benefit infants, toddlers and their families. However, with new funding also came challenges and questions. The document Zero-to-Three offered provides a plan how to spend the funding in a meaningful manner.

Debbie M. Rappaport, Project Director, ZERO TO THREE Policy Network,  states: "From the time of conception to the first day of kindergarten, development proceeds at a pace exceeding that of any subsequent stage of life. It is during this time that the brain undergoes its most dramatic growth, and children acquire the ability to think, speak, learn and reason. Early experiences can and do influence the physical architecture of the brain, literally shaping the neural connections in an infant’s developing brain." This statement made me realize that we need to start advocating for children much earlier than I thought we needed. Reading about how brain development already begins with conception, I began to realize that we need to start advocating for mothers as well to promote their healthy development as well.

References:

Rappaport, Debbie (2007). Partnering with the Business Community & Economists to Advance a Birth to Five Policy Agenda. Retrieved from http://main.zerotothree.org/site/DocServer/Partnering_with_the_Business_Community_final.pdf?docID=4361Zero-to-Three (2011). Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/child-development/play/.