Quote from Art Rolnick
“Results consistently show that high quality early childhood
programs help kids enter kindergarten with the skills they need to learn and
that those children continue to be successful in school and ultimately become
contributing members of society. Most significantly, the crime rate among those
who participate in these programs falls dramatically. The research shows that
positive outcomes for at-risk children can be achieved and that the
cost-benefit ratio and rates of return yield a high public return. This is in
contrast to the 0% return on public subsidies to private businesses that I
referred to earlier. Less crime and a well-educated workforce lead to the
long-term payoff of economic growth and development” (Art Rolnick).
Quote From Stanley Greenspan
“Parents can make a dramatic difference in how children use
their wonderfully different natural abilities. Children vary considerably in
the ways they use their senses and bodies and the ways they respond to the
world. For each unique pattern, however, parents can create experiences that
promote flexibility. The capacity to love, to empathize with others, to be
confident and assertive, and to think creatively are complex products of many
of our traits; indeed, they are the results of our relationships and
experiences over many years.
A child's personality is a product of the unique and
continuous interplay between nature and nurture. And this interplay happens in
your relationship with your child. Your child brings his or her
"nature", and you bring warmth and love wrapped up in a particular
pattern of caring. It operates like a lock and a key. Finding the right key
creates new patterns of interactions. Out of this new relationship, a child can
often develop the warmth and confidence he or she needs.
For each stage of development there is a special
"key". I believe that this knowledge about how to find the
"keys" that will help any child, even those with difficult
challenges, needs to be in the hands of each and every caregiver and parent.
Stanley Greenspan, 1995. The Challenging Child.
