Early learning occurs in the period before the preschool years, before children are old enough to enter kindergarten. Any number of activities and experiences exist to aid in the cognitive and social development of young children. SCPITC has a specific focus on early childhood care and education for infants and toddlers from birth to three years old.
Child Care & Early Education Research Connections, launched in 2004, promotes high quality research in child care and early education and the use of that research in policy making. Our vision is that children are well cared for and have rich learning experiences, and their families are supported and able to work. The website offers research and data resources for researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and others.
Visit https://www.researchconnections.org/childcare/welcome to learn more.
The Program for Infant/Toddler Care believes infant care should be based on relationship planning — not lesson planning — and should emphasize child-directed learning over adult-directed learning. Rather than detailing specific lessons for infant/toddler care teachers to conduct with infants, the PITC approach shows infant/toddler care teachers ways of helping infants learn the lessons that every infant comes into the world eager to learn.
Visit https://www.pitc.org/pub/pitc_docs/home.csp to learn more.
hWestEd’s site offers information on all levels of education including the infant/toddler stage. It also has links to more specific content areas such as charter schools, math and science education and standards and assessment.
Visit https://www.wested.org/area_of_work/early-childhood-development-learning/ to learn more.
A national organization dedicated to advancing the healthy development of infants and toddlers, this site offers cutting-edge research, demonstrated best practices, parenting tips, publications, and conference information.
Visit https://www.zerotothree.org to learn more.
The mission of the Natural Learning Initiative is to help communities create stimulating places for play, learning, and environmental education – environments that recognize human dependence on the natural world. We collaborate with educators, play leaders, environmental educators, planners, politicians, and all professionals working for and with children.
Visit https://naturalearning.org to learn more.