I expected my parenting experience to be more calculating, more specifically purposeful than it has manifested in reality. ... I didn’t realize the foundational education I was tasked with edifying her with was buried in a gigantic mountain of squealing, hysterical fun.
The Urban Child Institute's message—that brain development in children ages 0-3 is critical—is straightforward. It's the dissemination of this message that gets more complicated. Enter the Technology Department.
A few years ago, The Urban Child Institute (UCI) and Neighborhood Christian Centers partnered on a simple concept that would encourage Mid-South families to spend time together in a way that fused science and good old fashioned parenting. What emerged was Touch Talk Read Play (TTRP).
The Urban Child Institute recently launched its Baby Small campaign, offering a big idea: we can improve the future of our community through small, smart decisions and actions that promote optimal early childhood brain development. Baby Small reminds us that the first years of life are a period of both extraordinary development and extraordinary opportunity. Babies' brains develop in response to their environments.
There’s an old saying that “play is the work of childhood,” and this issue of Research to Policy looks at the ways in which play works to shape the developing brains of young children in Memphis. Research shows us that play supports early brain development in impressive ways.
Everyone is familiar with the "three Rs": Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. This phrase has long been used to describe the essential components of education – the three skill areas that all subsequent learning is built upon. But there is another phrase that we wish were just as familiar: Touch, Talk, Read, Play, or TTRP. These represent the most important activities that parents share with their babies and toddlers, and when it comes to learning, they are just as important as the three Rs.
