Advocate for Healthy Child Development

Outside of my office window a young girl is jumping in and out of brightly colored squares painted on the sidewalk.  Her mother points to each of the squares and asks how many are there. It takes only a moment over the course of their stroll to Boston Children's Museum, but this stop will help lay the foundation for the little girl's developing math and motor skills. It will join a flurry of other experiences, observations and interactions that will prepare the toddler to enter school ready to learn.  read more »

Two Saturdays ago, I received an email from United Way colleague Caroline Ross on why investments in early childhood development (still) matter. I mention the day because Caroline is the type of professional who cares so much about the questions and issues that permeate her work, that it's no surprise she thinks about them on Saturday evenings, while others (including one blogger who shall remain nameless) are off playing Guitar Hero.  read more »

The following is the second in a series of guest blogger posts by Robin Carmody and Yana Lapaix of the Early Childhood Education Department at Bay State College. Robin is the program chair of the department and Juliane (Yana) Lapaix teaches several courses on the education and development of young children. Their series will focus on advice for parents and professionals working with young children  read more »

I am sitting at my desk this morning feeling a bit paralyzed. In August, my 5 year old son went through an evaluation of his developmental skills –as all other children entering kindergarten do. We brought him in for his evaluation totally confident –as far as his father and I were concerned, he was very advanced for his age both in his physical and emotional development. Our child knew his letters and could put together a puzzle meant for an older child. Our child played with tiny legos that required more concentration than most 5 yea  read more »

As Meghan said in her last blog, the United Way of America (UWA) recently unveiled what they are calling The Common Good Report which identifies three broad issue areas that UWA believes are the essential building blocks to a successful life, these being education, income and health, and goes on to articulate four indicators within
each of those categories, which they plan to track over time. More importantly though, is the fact that in this report and the communication that has accompanied it both in the press and at the UWA Community Leaders Conference, UWA has put forward what I consider to be both very bold and very specific goals around what they are commiting to achieve in the next ten years. Cutting to the chase, these goals are:  read more »