Video Learning Library

Early Learning: A Smart Investment A Family 2 Family Special

Channel 2 Action News anchors Justin Farmer and Jovita Moore take an in-depth look at the benefits and challenges of quality early education in Georgia. Researchers say 400,000 Georgia children under six years old are in the care of someone other than their parents for up to 10 hours a day. The state agency which oversees childcare and preschool programs is working with private and non-profit partners to improve the quality of early care and learning. Channel 2 examines the new rating system designed to help parents find quality early education in their neighborhoods. This prime time special will explores how private dollars may be critical to ensuring access for all Georgia children and give parents ideas on ways to stimulate vocabulary and learning at home.

Empowering Children’s Voices

This video was created by the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning as part of their Infant Toddler Conference on Language and Literacy.

New Video Teaches Parents How to Build a Foundation for Reading Success With Their Children

The message has been clear from countless sources: parents need to read to their children. But what parents really need to know is how they read makes all the difference in the development of their children’s vocabulary, comprehension and critical thinking skills. Research has shown that by reading with their children – not to them – parents greatly increase children’s language and literacy, developing the foundation they need to enter kindergarten as strong, confident learners on a path to grade level reading and so much more - for a lifetime. To help parents learn key things to do at story time, the Rollins Center for Language & Learning at the Atlanta Speech School has partnered with the Junior League of Atlanta to produce the complimentary video READ. In just five minutes, parents learn what they can do to make books come alive for their children and increase their learning: Repeat Books, Engage and Enjoy, Ask Questions, and Do More. A two-page coaching sheet recaps the four steps, and provides more information on the research that is the basis for the READ strategy. This video is narrated by Justin Cook, a 2010 graduate of the Atlanta Speech School’s Wardlaw School, and is posted on the school’s website, atlantaspeechschool.org.

Junior League of Atlanta: Early Childhood Education: Making the Investment

Investment in early childhood education will reap huge returns for decades to come.

Change the First Five Years and You Change Everything

Early education programs do not supplant parents, but support them as their childs first and most important teacher. The sad reality is that many low-income parents grew up in poverty and may not have the tools to support their childs education. Evidence-based programs coach low-income parents on how to best support their childs education at school and at home starting before the child is born. Only by supporting the family can we narrow the achievement gap and break the cycle of poverty. http://www.ounceofprevention.org

Toxic Stress Derails Healthy Development

Learning how to cope with adversity is an important part of healthy development. While moderate, short-lived stress responses in the body can promote growth, toxic stress is the strong, unrelieved activation of the body's stress management system in the absence of protective adult support. Without caring adults to buffer children, the unrelenting stress caused by extreme poverty, neglect, abuse, or severe maternal depression can weaken the architecture of the developing brain, with long-term consequences for learning, behavior, and both physical and mental health. This video is part three of a three-part series titled "Three Core Concepts in Early Development" from the Center and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. The series depicts how advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, and genomics now give us a much better understanding of how early experiences are built into our bodies and brains, for better or for worse. Healthy development in the early years provides the building blocks for educational achievement, economic productivity, responsible citizenship, lifelong health, strong communities, and successful parenting of the next generation. For more information, please visit: http://developingchild.harvard.edu