When it comes to early childhood development, programs that are aligned with our understanding of best practice policy are actively serving at-risk children and families in Shelby County.
All of us believe it and most of us have said it at one time or another. The question for us then is this: why is it so hard for the reality of our youngest children to match our rhetoric? Often, it feels that on issues of early childhood, it’s one step forward, two steps back.
Touch. Talk. Read. Play. When it comes to a child’s ability to learn, these four little words hold huge weight and significance as the foundation for early brain development.
Home Visiting Promotes Child Development
Pregnancy is often a difficult time for women. Furthermore, women who lack the sufficient resources to take care of themselves and their growing children, face pregnancy with even greater stress.
In Shelby County, 15% of all children are born to teenage mothers.1 These children face many obstacles in their early years in part because their mothers (and fathers) are not well prepared to be parents.