Brief
Kindergarten comes with big changes for children. It may be their first time in a structured school setting, or in a room with many children.
Each child responds differently. Some get excited about new experiences, while others feel nervous about these upcoming changes. Furthermore, children may react differently once they enter the classroom.
Kids also come to kindergarten at different readiness levels. Some have skills like knowing the alphabet and counting to ten. Others have not yet acquired these skills.
Here are nine ways to help kids make this transition.
Brief
When most people think about parent-child reading activities, they likely picture a mother quietly reading to her children. Very few people would envision a reading event where fathers and children are acting like donkeys, elephants, and gorillas. That is exactly what happens, however, at a Dad and Kid Reading Night sponsored by Strong Fathers-Strong Families. Dad and Kid Reading Night encourages and teaches fathers to read to their children. The books are carefully chosen both to reflect the father child dynamic and to facilitate lively activity.
Brief
Over the past several decades, fathers have nearly tripled the time they spend with their children. Involved fatherhood is associated with better outcomes on nearly every measure of child wellbeing. Healthy father involvement can also serve as a protective factor to strengthen families at risk for child maltreatment. Most children are not at risk for maltreatment by their parents, and child abuse prevention programs have evolved from focusing solely on reducing risk factors to also building protective factors in families. Some programs target fathers specifically, and aim to promote positive…
Brief
This mixed-method evaluation examined five community-based initiatives in Washington State intended to prevent child maltreatment and exposure to toxic stress, mitigate their effects, and improve child and youth development outcomes. The study had two phases. During the first phase (2013–2014), the research team assessed operational contexts, strategies used to increase community capacity to prevent ACEs, and impact at the county level. In the second phase (2015–2016), the researchers examined the extent to which sites developed capacity to achieve their goals, and the relationship of select…
Brief
This brief explains the Two-Generation (Two-Gen) approach for working with families builds well-being by creating a solid and stable foundation through integrated, intensive, and high-quality services in four areas of focus: early childhood education, elementary education, economic stability, and family engagement. It discusses findings from a research study that explored how three States (Connecticut, Colorado, and Utah) are development and implementing a Two-Gen framework in practice and how support for an intentional Two-Gen approach can be translated into a coordinated implementation…
Brief
This brief explains the importance of incorporating father involvement in Strengthening Families programs designed to increase family strengths, enhance child development, and reduce the likelihood of child abuse and neglect. It explains strategies that programs can be encouraged to use, including employing men as staff members in varied positions and in significant roles, creating an environment that is welcoming and inclusive of all family members, consistently communicating with both fathers and mothers on all issues concerning their children – and making this policy explicit to both…
Brief
This brief describes the five protective factors that are the foundation of the Strengthening Families Approach: parental resilience, social connections, concrete support in times of need, knowledge of parenting and child development, and social and emotional competence of children. It explains the Strengthening Families Approach benefits all families building on family strengths, can be implemented through small but significant changes in everyday actions, can build on existing programs, and is grounded in research. A chart shows levers, strategies, protective factors, and results of the…
Brief
This brief provides a summary of research findings on the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program, a parent involvement, school readiness program that helps low literacy parents prepare their three- to five-year-old children for success in school and life. HIPPY programs provide a 30-week direct instruction program to at-risk parents focusing on language development, problem solving, perceptual discrimination, and other pre-academic skills. It is free to parents and delivered by home visitors who live in the same high need neighborhoods as the families they serve…
Brief
This issue brief explains that the economic health and social well-being of the United States are significantly enhanced when parents have the tools they need to help their children start school prepared to learn, develop thesocial skills necessary to pay attention and work in teams, and grow up to be productive adults. It explores the physical development of the infant brain and the impact of stimulus, and the benefits of parent education programs. Findings from studies on the effectiveness of parenting programs are shared, and 10 parenting programs that are strong enough to have a possible…
Brief
Intended for Wisconsin policymakers, this document explains infant and toddler development and key factors that influence the social and emotional competence, early learning and academic achievement, and secure attachment and self-regulation of children from birth to age three. The second part of the paper provides key facts and figures related to infants and toddlers in Wisconsin, current services that are available for infants and toddlers, and key Wisconsin efforts to assure quality services. The following section highlights early development programs that have been proven to work in other…
