Relationships
Raising Children Network
[Link]
This website promotes relationships in early childhood because it has articles about
communication tips, how to give a child positive attention, and the importance of smiling back at
babies. The Australian network is divided into multiple sections that focus on sequential chapters
of human life (pregnancy, newborns, babies, etc.) with each section having a “family life”
subsection. I also found videos where adults and parents demonstrated how to communicate and
play with a child at different month stages. While Raising Children Network covers a broad
range of topics related to parenting, it places an emphasis on children's relational well-being
because its front page relates to things such as friend-making, child anxiety, and newborn
bonding. As discussed repeatedly, a child can’t be well if they don’t have secure relationships.
Zöggeler-Burkhardt, L., Embacher, E. M., & Smidt, W. (2023). Social relationships, interactions
and learning in early childhood – theoretical approaches, empirical findings and challenges.
Early Child Development and Care, 193(11–12), 1199–1203.
[Link]
Overall, this article was about what a child’s relationships teaches them before they enter
schooling. It highlighted eight studies that discussed childhood relationships effects. The first
study conducted across German daycare centers found a positive correlation between social
participation and learning behavior outcomes. The second study found that maternal rejection
deeply impacted a child’s social skills, proving that mother-child relationships are just as crucial
as friendships. The third Austrian study was about how a child’s personality type may predict
their teacher-child relationship. All of these contributions led to the end goal of wanting to
improve childhood relationships of every kind. It endorses the idea of allowing children to bond
with adults safely.
Repetition
Zero to Three
[Link]
Zero to Three focuses on policy advocacy, research, and resources that better the lives of
families and children age zero to three. The website promotes repetition for children by
publishing articles about how educators can be present when guiding children, parenting through
crises, and how parents can spark their child’s creativity. All of these topics involve repeated
care and attention. Zero to Three subtly promotes the idea that children need repeated acts of
nurturing and skill practicing in order to build a foundation for success.
Nencheva, M. L., Schwab, J. F., Lew-Williams, C., & Fausey, C. M. (2024). Word Repetition
and Isolation are Intertwined in Children's Early Language Experiences. Open mind : discoveries
in cognitive science, 8, 1330–1347. [Link]
The NIH study aimed to find how repetition of the same words and frequent word utterances
affect the timing of early learning experiences. The experiments discovered that children are
more likely to learn words earlier when the words are repeated to them or said more often.
Isolation-repetition word clusters are an asset to help children communicate in their first
relationships. Just like we learned from Anita Zucker Center, children need abundant
opportunities to learn because learning isn’t a switch, but a process.
Routines
Head Start
[Link]
Head Start operates through child care agencies that provide quality learning for low-income
pregnant women, their children, and the whole family. Early Head Start is focused on infants and
toddlers, while Head Start Preschool is for children aged three to four. The program’s goal since
its creation was to make sure every child, regardless of socioeconomic status, was healthy in a
nutritional, social, emotional, and psychological sense. Head Start encourages establishing
routines because they have topic pages dedicated to safety practices, living a nutritious lifestyle,
and child-friendly teaching practices. Head Start understands that children thrive off of routines
and countless opportunities to respond to these routines. Every screening, dental exam, and
learning activity is part of a connected series of routines that the child engages in.
Ren, L., Boise, C., & Cheung, R. Y. M. (2022). Consistent routines matter: Child routines
mediated the association between interparental functioning and school readiness. Early
Childhood Research Quarterly, 61, 145–157. [Link]
This article by Early Childhood Research Quarterly examines the relationships between
childhood routines and preschool readiness. As expected, children who had consistent routines
were found to be more ready for preschool than those who didn’t have warm routines. Variables
the researchers tracked included activity routines, daily living routines, discipline routines, and
sleep routines. The study also found that marital satisfaction (from both mothers and fathers)
played a role in whether a child got quality routines. The researchers want to communicate that
parents, guardians, or caregivers need to present when building routines with children. Routines
build rhythm, skills, and character.