I have been a subscriber to the ZERO TO THREE website for over a year. In my work with infant through preschool aged children, I have found the information and resources on this site to be so helpful. There are resources for teachers and families that I have shared in trainings and parent meetings and conversations. The organization was founded in 1977 and they are headquartered in Washington, D.C. They are a nonprofit that strives to train professionals, policy makers, and parents in their efforts to support the development of infants and toddlers. Their mission speaks to the importance of enhancing the early experiences based on the latest research and knowledge. there are newsletters, weekly downloads, and videos that support the work of professionals and families.
One issue that the website highlights is early language and literacy. They provide researched-based resources for use in the classroom and with families. There are supporting materials for use with children who speak Spanish. I would like to see them provide materials in the future that support children who speak the various other languages we are seeing increasingly in our programs. However, as we learned through one of our articles this week called "The Latino Education Crisis", there is a vital need for comprehensive services for children and families in the Latino communities. There must be a "continuum of interventions rather than discrete interventions" and preschool efforts alone will not close the learning gap for these children. (Gandara, 2010). We must treat the child as part of a whole and address the needs of the families that may or may not speak English and have access to quality community resources.
www.zerotothree.org
Gándara, P. (2010). The latino education crisis. Educational Leadership, 67(5), 24–30.
When you mentioned that this site provided you with valuable information for parent meetings and conversations I got really excited because parent education is an area I have been thinking about for the upcoming school year. Thank you for sharing this resource! I look forward to learning more and discovering resources that will be beneficial and supportive to parents.
ReplyDeleteKatherine,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the website.You made a good point about needed to support children who speak all languages in the classroom. You made an excellent point when you said, "We must treat the child as part of a whole and address the needs of the families that may or may not speak English and have access to quality community resources." I Look forward to reading more.
This sounds like a great website with wonderful tools to help those who teach Spanish speaking students. I find it interesting that many of the organization websites had articles in their lastest newsletters about topics relating to cultural diversity. It is nice to have a great repertoire of resources to support educators as our demographics in the U.S. continue to change. Thanks for sharing this one.
ReplyDeleteKatherine,
ReplyDeleteI browse this website quite often, and they have a lot of valuable resources on this site.I'm thinking about signing up for newsletters and alert from Zero to One. I enjoy reading the different articles and activities they find very important for our young children.