Senate Passes Child Care and Community Block Grant Reauthorization On March 13, 2014, the Senate voted 96 to 2 to pass S. 1086, the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014 (CCDBG), reauthorizing the the CCDBG Act of 1990 through Fiscal Year 2020. The bill was lauded as an example of how the Senate […]
New Findings: Early Childhood Investments Substantially Boost Adult Health!
Economist James Heckman and colleagues conducted a new analysis of the Abecedarian Project, one of the oldest and most cited U.S. early childhood (infancy through age 5) intervention programs. Their research report, published on March 27th, 2014 in Science, shows positive effects on adult heath. The researchers collected recent data to find that children who […]
News Roundup March 4th
Alcohol Consumption in Early Stages of Pregnancy Has Harmful Effect on Placenta Scientists have identified two harmful effects of consuming alcohol during the early stages of a pregnancy: Damage to the placenta and reduction of the important amino acid called ‘Taurine’ that is delivered through the placenta from the mother to her baby. “This research […]
News Roundup February 19th
Administration Officials Review the State of the Union and Discuss Opportunities in Early Childhood Learning “The reason we’re here is every child — every single child in our country — deserves to have a fair chance to live up to his or her God-given potential,” _Hilary Clinton As over 1,100 early learning stakeholders met on […]
News Roundup January 29th
Exposure to Nicotine in the Womb Increases Long-Term Risk of Obesity Recent research shows exposure to nicotine from either smoking or NRT (nicotine replacement therapy i.e., gum, patches, nasal spray and lozenges) in the womb, causes an increased risk of obesity and other long-term adverse reactions. The study was led by Daniel Hardy, PhD, assistant […]
News Roundup January 13th
A New Study Suggests a Father’s Diet and Folate (Vitamin B9) Levels Before Conception May Be as Important to Infant Health and Development as That of the Mother A recent study from McGill University using mice with low paternal dietary folate levels showed alterations in mouse sperm epigenome associated with negative pregnancy outcomes. This study […]