Relevant Research

May has been a busy month in the world of early childhood research. We've created a short list of some newly released resources!

- Dr. Dworkin, Director of the Help Me Grow National Center, has updated his blog again. This time it's filled with links to interesting brain research as presented by Jack Shonkoff and others regarding the impact of early adversity on young children and the importance of strong communities! Visit his post and explore the latest in baby brain science.

- Charles Bruner, executive director of the Child and Family Policy Center, has shared a brief summary that covers the existing and potential opportunities for financing from Medicaid for Help Me Grow. In the summary, he illuminates opportunities for expansion and sustainability for Help Me Grow affiliates around the nation. See the description here or download the summary (pdf) directly here.

- The Urban Institute's latest report, Disconnected Mothers and the Well-Being of Children (pdf), synthesizes research related to low-income mothers disconnected from both work and welfare. The research shows that many of the circumstances disconnected mothers face pose major risks to children's development. As shared by Zero to Three, this paper provides potential interventions to help disconnected families, including increasing and stabilizing family income, enhancing parenting skills, supporting children directly, and reaching out to disconnected mothers who are not citizens.

- We hope you'll participate in the Early Learning Day of Action on June 5th. The day is a call to action to emphasize the importance of early learning from birth to five. You could plan and participate in a community rally, or simply send out a tweet. Every action, great or small, is a step in the right direction of bringing attention to the needs of young children! Learn more and get ideas from this online toolkit.