Child Care
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C 1284-13
Out-of-Home Care for Young Children
Combining grandparenting with full-time or part-time work outside the home can be challenging. Who will take care of your grandchildren while you’re at work? How do you find someone who will help your grandchildren learn and grow so they are ready for kindergarten? Choosing an out-of-home caregiver for your grandchildren is an important decision. It’s crucial that you feel comfortable with the person (or people) who teach and care for for your grandchildren when you’re not there. So how do you choose good out-of-home childcare, and how do you help your grandchildren make a smooth transition to another caregiver?
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From the moment a baby is born, every experience taken in by the five senses helps strengthen the connections that guide development. No two brains are alike! Each child’s brain creates individual pathways of connections based on specific experiences. Here are some general tips you can use to help wire the brain for success.
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C 1053-02
Prime Times for Learning
Research in brain development shows there are certain windows of opportunity, known as sensitive periods, when certain parts of the brain develop most quickly. These windows are prime times for learning certain skills because the brain is ready to build networks of connections in response to what the five senses absorb. Here are some of those prime times, what to expect, and what you can do to improve brain development.
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Child care providers play an important role in nurturing children’s healthy brain development. When it comes to supporting healthy brain development, the type of child care is less important than the quality of care a child receives. This publication will help you understand the components of quality child care and the effects of low-quality child care on brain development.
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C 1053-06
The Role of Music in Brain Development
Children who grow up listening to music develop strong music-related connections in the brain. Some of these music pathways actually affect the way we think. Listening to classical music seems to improve our spatial reasoning, at least for a short time. And learning to play an instrument may have an even longer effect on certain thinking skills. Here is some information on how music affects our brains and ideas on how to help nurture children’s love of music.
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C 1053-09
Nurturing Positive Relationships
Over the first months of life, babies build relationships with the adults who care for them. These early attachment relationships matter. Babies who form warm, loving relationships feel secure exploring and learning. Babies who live in an unpredictable world tend to form insecure attachments. They learn that the world is unreliable and expect later relationships to be negative. Here’s what you need to know about attachment and what you can do to help your baby build secure attachment relationships.
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Play is one of the most essential activities babies do. Through play, babies and young children have the opportunity to experience new things and practice existing skills, which strengthens networks of
brain connections. This publication explains what babies learn while playing and what you can do to help build brain connections through play.|
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The developing brain thrives on repetition. When a baby experiences the same things over and over, the pathways of connections in her brain become stronger and more complex. One of the best ways to provide repetition for the developing brain is to create consistency in the child’s world. This publication explains the components of consistency and what you can do to create a positive and predictable environment.
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C 1053-12
Buffering the Brain From Toxic Stress
Children who live in unpredictable worlds, who do not have the opportunity to form a secure attachment with a caregiver, or who live in an unsafe physical environment live in a constant state of heightened stress. This severe, chronic stress can have profound and long-lasting negative effects on brain development. Buffering children from toxic stress and helping reduce that stress to more tolerable levels are important ways adults can support early brain development. This publication explains what stress is and gives ways to can help young children deal with stress in a healthy way.
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