• High-quality Child Care for Low-income Children Offsets Risk of Later Depression
• Using Music to Improve Learning for Children with Autism

• FPG Awarded $8 Million for Autism Research and Professional Development
• FPG Fellow Testified at National Summit on America's Children
• NPDCI Selects State Partners
• FPG Staff to Lead 11 Sessions at NAEYC Professional Development Institute

• New Issue of Early Developments Available

• FPG experts will be presenting at meetings around the world. Visit the FPG website for a complete list of upcoming presentations.
• Visit the FPG websitefor the latest news on FPG projects.

Young adults from low-income families who were in full-time early educational child care from infancy to age 5 reported fewer symptoms of depression than their peers who were not in this type of care, according to a new report by FPG researchers. The early educational intervention also appears to have protected the children to some extent against the negative effects of their home environments.

Download the Snapshot.

Research shows that songs can assist children with memorization and sequencing of events. In a study published in Music Therapy Perspectives, FPG researchers hypothesized that using songs to prompt a series of steps might help a child with autism more independently complete multi-step self-care routines.

Download the Snapshot.

FPG will examine the effectiveness of two often-used classroom approaches for young children with autism. The project is one of two autism-related grants recently awarded to FPG and its partners at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The second project will establish a new national autism professional development center, which will help states incorporate effective practices for children with autism in classrooms, homes, and communities. This work will be completed through a partnership between FPG and other UNC partners (Division TEACCH, the Clinical Center for the Study and Development of Learning and the Neurodevelopmental Disorders Research Center), the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the M.I.N.D. Institute at the University of California, Davis. The projects are funded by two separate grants totaling more than $8 million.

Download the press release.

FPG Fellow Oscar Barbarin testified as part of a panel on early learning at the National Summit on America's Children in Washington on Tuesday, May 22, 2007.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced the summit in March saying, "The goal of the summit is to hear from experts on how federal policies can match the latest research so that families are given what they need to take advantage of scientific advances. This will require a commitment to explore new approaches and to examine existing policies. Today's families and future generations are counting on us to make this critical commitment."

Learn more about the summit at http://speaker.gov/issues?id=0032.

FPG’s National Professional Development Center on Inclusion (NPDCI) will work with four states—Georgia, Minnesota, Oregon and Pennsylvania—to better prepare early childhood personnel to work in inclusive preschool classrooms.

The work will address policy needs, resource issues and practice concerns. NPDCI will provide technical assistance to help states align existing personnel standards from general and special early childhood education; assist states in identifying and leveraging existing fiscal, human and material resources to develop an integrated, cross-agency State Plan for professional development for inclusion; and contribute to the evolving knowledge base of effective teaching and intervention practices that support inclusion.

Four additional states will be selected in the beginning of 2008 through an application process open to all U.S. states, jurisdictions and territories. In addition to working intensely with selected states, NPDCI will serve as a resource to all states.

For more information about NPDCI, visit www.fpg.unc.edu/~npdci.

Researchers and outreach specialists from FPG will lead 11 sessions at the upcoming NAEYC 16th National Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development to be held June 10th through 13th in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Sessions include:

• Achieving appropriate literacy and numeracy using the ECERS-R and ECERS-E
• Acting on intentions: Using NAEYC standards for early childhood professionals to increase the emphasis on diversity
• Assessing family child care environments
• Cultivating intention: Tools, strategies, and resources for increasing the emphasis on sexual orientation and gender identity diversity in professional development
• Early childhood teacher preparation programs in the United States: Results from a national survey
• English Language Learners in Early Childhood Classrooms: Instructional Practices, Program Policies, and Child Outcomes
• Innovative professional development for early educators: Lessons learned and future directions
• National Professional Development Center on Inclusion: What we know, what we don't know, and what we plan to learn
• New pieces for a familiar puzzle: Resources and strategies for increasing the emphasis on inclusion for children with special needs
• Standards vs. Standardization: Using early learning standards and authentic assessment to intentionally support a curriculum that is appropriate for all children
• The year in early childhood research: What's new and what can we do with it?

A new issue of FPG’s award-winning publication, Early Developments, is available online. This issue examines a relatively new phenomenon in the early childhood field called evidence-based practice.

Download Early Developments.