The idea for Canopy really began with a very personal experience. I gave birth to my first baby in New York City on March 24, 2020, right in the earliest days of the pandemic when the city was in full 'shelter in place.' Overnight, there were no playgroups, no mom gatherings, no places to go with a baby. The normal ways that parents meet each other and find support totally disappeared.
The effort to get a snapshot of kindergarten readiness is part of the National Survey of Children's Health, which collected information from thousands of parents and guardians about their child in five areas - early learning, motor skills, social-emotional development, self-regulation and health. The goal was to answer an overall question: Is your child ready for school? Readiness in California is on par with the nation's average, which also puts kindergarten readiness at two-thirds of 3- to 5-year-olds.
A year ago, the back lot of Normont Early Education Center was little more than a bare, heat-radiating expanse of asphalt. Outside, the Harbor City preschool reflected its industrial neighborhood: scant grass, little shade, amid a block of warehouses full of grinding machinery. To get to campus, parents must shepherd their children through a concrete labyrinth, past auto body shops and steel manufacturers. At times, the noise of grinding gears can obscure the soprano whoops and wails of the preschoolers.
Individual development and family rituals begin in the family's communication crucible, where infants first encounter the external world through face-to-face interaction. These immediate personal exchanges, involving eye contact and the first sounds of conversational speech, begin to form the core neurobiological and social foundations of attachment, early social cognition, and emotional development (Farroni et al., 2002; Trevarthen & Aitken, 2001; Feldman, 2007).
Finding the right toys for your child can feel overwhelming. With a lot of options online and in stores, how do you know what will truly nurture learning? The best toys do more than keep children busy; they help stimulate brain development, strengthen problem-solving, enhance decision-making, encourage self-regulation skills, support emotional growth, and create beautiful moments with parents. Why Toys Matter for Brain Development Children's brains are surprisingly plastic, especially in the early years.
A divorce is seldom easy-not for the couple that divorces, but also not for their children (if they have any). However, past psychological research on how divorce affects children's development was often conducted in small cohorts of volunteers and showed conflicting results. Moreover, it typically focused on older children. Therefore, large studies in younger children are needed to get robust and trustworthy insights on how divorce affects early child development.
Scrapping the controversial two-child benefit limit would reduce child poverty but not necessarily help with a youngster's early development and their readiness for school, a new report has suggested. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) concluded that the policy, which anti-poverty campaigners have repeatedly criticised, has no statistically significant impact on the proportion of children in England achieving what is known as a good level of development by age five.
"It's never been about me," said Eggleton, adding that participating in the "Nevertheless: The Women Changing the World" documentary series on YouTube was her way of honoring her late mother, Geraldine, who inspired her to speak out and help others in her community.
Jenna found support through local family support services, essential for breastfeeding advice and creating a playgroup for her son, reaffirming her parenting journey.
