Essay on early childhood websites for good resources

Zero to Three and NAEYC: Key Professional Organizations

Education
Zero to Three and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) are two professional organizations that offer practical and useful information about early childhood on their websites. Early childhood development is defined by both as the age from birth to eight years old.
The Zero to Three website has an office in Washington, D. C. and one in Los Angeles. The organization accepts donations on their web site because they are a national non-profit. Resources on the website are targeted to meet the needs of parents, professional educators, and government policy makers. The resources include12 podcasts of a programme titled “ Little Kids, Big Questions” which help caregivers (and parents) learn how to meet the needs of particular children in their lives based on the early childhood development research. The organization publishes a journal. The November 2013 issue is about self-regulation and executive functions during early cognitive development and what examples of what adults can do to teach children, health routines and provide stimulating learning environments. Zero to Three has a nonpartisan Public Policy Center to share knowledge, encourage new leaders and importantly to remind policymakers about the current research and important need for strong families and good early learning experiences.
The NAEYC website offers everything from timely web articles to a web store with journals and books on early development topics. The books seem to be full of good information on how to engage children in nature, how to design anti-bias early childhood programs, encouraging creativity and learning fitness at an early age. NAEYC also offers accreditation programs for Associate Degrees, Baccalaureates and graduate degrees. The NAEYC national accreditation program sets standards for childhood education programs. Families can search for a NAEYC program by clicking onto a link on the website. The campaign ‘ Building a Lasting Legacy’ allows anyone with an interest to support and find leadership opportunities at the state and local NAEYC affiliate levels. The opportunities range from positions on the NAEYC governing board, to reviewing programs to working as editors or proposal reviewers.
Both websites have a great variety of interesting and challenging information for professionals involved with early childhood development. Both sites offer videos, articles and related weblinks.

References

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) http://www. naeyc. org
Zero to Three http://www. zerotothree. org/? cvridirect= true
Zero to Three Journal. (2014). “ Early Cognitive Development Self-regulation and Executive Functions” November. http://www. zerotothree. org/about-us/areas-of-expertise/zero-to-three-journal/