Friday, December 7, 2012

Equity and Excellence in Early Care and Education




Following some outside sources I found a article that talks about expanding access to early head start and how important it is for babies to begin development skill from birth. All babies need good health, strong families, and positive early learning experiences to foster their healthy intellectual, social, and emotional development.1 Unfortunately, far too few young children receive the supports they need to build a strong foundation for future growth. Infants and toddlers living in households under great economic stress are more likely to face challenges that negatively impact their development. Research shows that young children growing up in poverty experience poorer health, higher incidence of developmental delays and learning disabilities, hunger, and more reported cases of abuse and neglect compared to their peers.

I found that taking cue from NBC’s recent EducationNation Summit, it occurred that NTI is where the Baby Education Nation gathers each year. In the large K-12 space of the Summit, the idea that school readiness starts at birth doesn’t find much room. A segment and case study of Educare on the EducationNation website did highlight how high quality services support early development. But despite the fact that important brain development takes place during the first three years and many vulnerable babies fall behind during that period, babies still don’t pull much weight in the big kid education world.  At NTI, babies are front and center in discussions about development and learning, and giving all children the best possible start in life is a subject that excites much passion.
The information I found from the website Zero to Three gave me understanding of equity and excellence in early care and education. From the two article you can read how negativity can effect children and how it can delay a child in educational growth verses a child that is not exposed to economic stress factors. Other insights that I found was how the EducationNation Summit was so effective and informing everyone who works with children as well as families about how important development is at the age of birth. I influence a child way before the public school years.


The information I found from the website Zero to Three gave me understanding of equity and excellence in early care and education. From the two article you can read how negativity can effect children and how it can delay a child in educational growth verses a child that is not exposed to economic stress factors. Other insights that I found was how the EducationNation Summit was so effective and informing everyone who works with children as well as families about how important development is at the age of birth. I influence a child way before the public school years.