This month's Early Childhood e-newsletter links will highlight what's current in brain development and shed some light on important issues impacted by, and connected to, how the brain develops. Sites included have comprehensive information about brain development, as well as information especially for parents and caregivers. The topics covered include research on brain development and early literacy, education, poverty, and social behavior so that policy makers, advocates, practitioners and parents and caregivers may become clearer about the role of society in the care and education of our youngest citizens.

Comprehensive Brain Development Sites
Understanding TV's effects on the developing brain by Jane M. Healy With new shows targeted to children as young as 1 year, parents are asking more questions about how television might be influencing their children.
www.aap.org/advocacy/chm98nws.htm

The comprehensive site, BrainNet, is dedicated to improving the lives of children by ensuring that all persons and systems that come into contact with pregnant women, parents and children promote healthy, optimal brain development. Links are provided to explore how the research impacts parents and caregivers, policy makers, and employers.
www.brainnet.wa.gov/

Brain Imaging. Recent technology has enabled neuroscientists to "see" inside the living brain. The site allows us to understand the relationships between specific areas of the brain and the functions they serve and more.
faculty.washington.edu/chudler/image.html

Idaho State Library Brain Links. The comprehensive site provides links to a number of great sites with information on brain development.
www.lili.org/isl/readtome/rlbrain.htm#link

EARLY BRAIN DEVELOPMENT What parents and caregivers need to know! The article, complete with excellent visuals, presents the facts about Early Brain Development that parents and educators and caregivers need to know in order to guide their relationships with babies. The article is available on line in eight languages.
www.educarer.com/brain.htm

Especially For Parents
The National Network for Child Care answers questions such as: What is the brain? How does the brain develop? Why do parents need to know about brain development in children? Does the brain grow faster in young children? Do we lose brain power over our lifetime? How does music affect the brain?
www.nncc.org/Child.Dev/brain_nc.html

A Parent's Guide to Early Brain Development In an attempt to raise public awareness about the first three years of life, I Am Your Child's Brain Facts suggests how recent findings by scientists affect you and your children.
http://www.iamyourchild.org/brainfacts

Zero to Three's Brain Wonders site is designed to provide parents, caregivers, and pediatric and family clinicians with meaningful information about early brain development and the relationships between babies and their parents and caregivers that support intellectual and social-emotional development.
www.zerotothree.org/brainwonders/index.html

Building Your Baby's Brain: A Parent's Guide to the First Five Years Diane Trister Dodge and Cate Heroman talk to parents about how to share books with children.
www.teachingstrategies.com/getpage.cfm?file=titles/bookinfo/100084_books.html&userid=10320542

The Brain During Development This site describes in text and with graphics the physiology of the brain and its development. Very comprehensive.
faculty.washington.edu/chudler/dev.html

Brain Net for Parents and Caregivers talks to parents and caregivers about how they play and talk with infants and toddlers, plus the experiences they provide can have a long-lasting impact on intelligence and character. The site offers simple suggestions for helping children's brains to grow and thrive.
www.brainnet.wa.gov/bnparents.html … and on the same site: Windows of Opportunity: Prime Times for Learning talks to parents about providing age appropriate experience and the timing of development. www.brainnet.wa.gov/bnprime.html

Brain Development and Literacy
Baby TALK: Language, Literature and Love for Infants Prenatal clinics, well child clinics and hospital obstetric units in Decatur, Illinois 62526, are building a 'cradle' of literacy through a community collaboration known as Baby TALK (Teaching Activities for Learning and Knowledge).
www.babytalk.org/essayBTphilosophy.html

PARENT-INFANT ATTACHMENT: THE CRADLE OF LITERACY The earliest relationship, the attachment between parent and child, is in reality the "cradle" from which the child's eventual communication skills and style will develop.
www.babytalk.org/essayattachment.html

Brain Development and Education
Early Childhood Education Getting More Attention Most states invest less than 1% of their total school aid on early childhood education according to ECS figures. This small percentage is out of line with recent brain research findings, which suggest that more resources should be placed on the early years of education.
www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/12/76/1276.htm#EarlyChildhood

LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH by the Abecedarian Project: (1999): Early Experience, Brain Development, and School Performance is a 59 page report presented in a quick read slide format.
www.circ.uab.edu/slides/CSramey.pdf

It is the intent of Artful Minds' to present a few basic considerations in Brain Basics that will encourage educators to pursue the positive connections between relevant information and how that information is translated into practice.
library.thinkquest.org/50072/brainbasics.htm

Do Education Practices Conflict with Brain Research? If all students are to enjoy the same wide range of opportunities to expand their learning capacity educators and neuroscientists must take what is known about brain development and apply it to the policies and strategies used to educate the nation's children.
www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/12/76/1276.htm#DoEd

Brain Research and Education: Neuroscience Research Has an Impact for Education Policy Recent research about early brain development conflicts with many common education practices and beliefs, and opens possibilities for profoundly different approaches.
www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/11/96/1196.htm

Why Do Schools Flunk Biology? Biology is a staple at most American high schools, yet when it comes to the biology of the students themselves many school officials would rather not pay attention to the lessons. Not only is important information from biologists ignored, their findings are often turned upside down.
www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/12/76/1276.htm#WhyDoSchools

In Making Connections-Teaching and the Human Brain (Caine and Caine 1994), the authors outlined a new theory of how people learn, based on current research in the cognitive and neurosciences, and applied the theory in several schools.
www.ascd.org/author/el/95/april/caine.html

Brain Development and Poverty
Not a Pretty Picture for Young Children Children under the age of 3 are the nation's poorest citizens, even though most have working parents.
www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/12/76/1276.htm#NotPretty

Poverty's effects on brain development. Almost one in four (24 percent) of America's children under age three lived in poverty in 1995. These 2.8 million poor children face a greater risk of impaired brain development due to their exposure to a number of risk factors associated with poverty.
cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/nccp/brain.html

Brain Development and Social Behavior
Why We're So Nice: We're Wired to Cooperate Scientists, studying neural activity in young women playing a classic laboratory game called the Prisoner's Dilemma, have discovered that the small, brave act of cooperating with another person, of choosing trust over cynicism, generosity over selfishness, makes the brain light up.
www.nytimes.com/2002/07/23/health/psychology/23COOP.html

Brain May Grow Too Fast, Too Early in Autism Two new reports provide more evidence that people with autism have slightly enlarged brains in childhood. But by adolescence, the differences in brain size between people with and without autism largely disappear, according to the research.
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=571&ncid=751&e=3&u=/nm/20020722/hl_nm/brain_autism_dc_1

Social Relationships of Infants in Daycare Earlier, it was common to assert that toddlers and infants exhibited parallel play but did not interact. Recent studies done on toddlers have disputed this assertion, and it is widely accepted professionally that toddlers develop friendships and interact in play. The article is available on line in eight languages.
www.educarer.com/current-article-relationships.htm

Brain Development Resources
The resources listed on U. S. Department of Education's National Child Care Information Center site provide an overview of the resources available.
nccic.org/cctopics/brain.html

I Am Your Child. An important and up-to-date site that includes videos for parents. Includes new titles.
www.iamyourchild.org/

ASCD offers (free) online tutorials. The Brain and Learning takes teachers and school administrators through steps of defining, understanding, viewing, and pondering to help teachers learn what they need to know, assess what their schools need to do, and learn how to implement curriculum changes to enhance student learning.
www.ascd.org/frametutorials.html

ASCD site offers an "electronic topic pack" of informative articles and excepts from ASCD resource materials, Educational Leadership magazine, ERIC, and other resources on brain development and brain-based teaching and learning.
www.ascd.org/readingroom/brainindex.html

Early Years Are Learning Years: Make Them Count! provides short information pieces designed as communication tools for use by adults involved with children on a daily basis to make sure the early years are learning years.
www.naeyc.org/resources/eyly/default.asp

STAFF FAVORITE WEBSITE OF THE MONTH

The Illinois Early Learning Web site (bilingual Spanish & English) Web site is an effective means of providing evidence-based, reliable information for parents, caregivers, and teachers of young children in the State of Illinois. The Web site offers printable Tip Sheets for caregivers and parents, Frequently Asked Questions (and their responses), a statewide calendar of events for parents and caregivers, an easy-to-use database of links to the best of the Web on topics of high interest, and facilitated Online Chats with guest speakers.
www.illinoisearlylearning.org/

Quote of the Month

The overwhelming majority of teachers … are unable to name or describe a theory of learning that underlies what they do in the classroom, but what they do-what any of us does-is no less informed by theoretical assumptions…. Behind the practice of presenting a colorful dinosaur sticker to a 1st grader who stays silent on command is a theory that embodies distinct assumptions about the nature of knowledge, the possibility of choice, and what it means to be a human being.

-Alfie Kohn, Punished by Rewards (1993)