My parents knew best with child-rearing pact
When I was about 6 years old, my dad told me that he and my mom had made an agreement when I was born. She would provide the primary parental oversight while I was a toddler and up to age 6. At that point, he would become much more prominent in my upbringing, especially in terms of advice and counsel as I grew to manhood.
It turns out that my mother’s approach in those early years worked very well in terms of what children need for healthy brain development. According to The Urban Child Institute and many other sources that have amassed a wealth of information on what children need in those formative years, a very heavy emphasis should be on touching (holding) your child, talking to your child, reading to your child and playing with your child. These activities are vitally important for nurturing and educating children during the earliest years of life. My mom was good at all four of them.
Research reflects that in the first year of life, the human brain doubles in size. By the age of 3, the brain has reached 80 percent of its adult size. The Urban Child Institute mantra of “touch, talk, read and play” is the best way to help a child’s brain develop effectively during those early formative years.
My parents’ decision about child rearing was not based on research; I think it was somewhat intuitive and based on the way that they had been raised. They decided what they thought was best. More recently, in my role as president of WLOK Radio, I have had considerable occasion to interface with The Urban Child Institute. In learning from them about the importance of early childhood brain development, I have become more appreciative of my parents’ wisdom. As a result, WLOK has developed a strong and ongoing partnership with The Urban Child Institute.
We have agreed to share information throughout our community — for example, to churches and child care centers — about brain development. WLOK staff members regularly visit child care centers, and we take with us T-shirts for the children there, each shirt bearing the words “Hold me,” “Talk to me,” “Read to me” or “Play with me.” We distribute these T-shirts to the youngsters, along with kindergarten readiness brochures for parents that explain why these four activities — touching, talking, reading and playing — are vital to the development of young children. The approach my mom and dad agreed upon years ago is known empirically and definitively today.
We have taken this message to 11 child care centers in our community, and we will spread the message to dozens more centers as the year progresses. Additionally, we regularly host talk programs on WLOK in which a representative from The Urban Child Institute comes into our studio to interact with our listening audience about the vital importance of these formative early years from birth to age 3.
Our goal is to reach as many people in our community as we can with this message. It is an approach to early child development that can save our community millions of dollars that we spend on the consequences of failing to give our children this strong base of support in their very earliest years of life.