Children's House in Cyberspace - Early Childhood Floor
The Early Childhood Floor focuses
on international early childhood care and accesses three major resources. The
World Bank's ABC for ECD introduces early childhood development (ECD) and its
underlying theories, the benefits of ECD, how to run programs, and how to
analyze the efficiency and cost of programs. The UNESCO Early Childhood site
promotes early childhood and family education, training of caregivers,
information sharing, and research. The Consultative Group on Early Childhood
Care and Development site focuses on benefits, costs, and financing of ECD
programs.
Early Child Development Home Page
Lists international sites, US resources, country-specific sites, online journals,
etc. The links to the ERIC Clearinghouse on Early Childhood Education, UNESCO
and UNICEF sources, listservs, sites on developmentally appropriate practices,
journals, organizations, etc. are excellent and the summaries provided are clear
and informative.
Educator's Reference Desk
Offers over 2000 lesson plans, over 3000 links, and a
question archive. It also links to the Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) http://www.thegateway.org which leads to over 40000 other resources. If you want to search the
ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) Database, you can search from the
US government site at http://www.eric.ed.gov/ or through the ACC library at http://library.austincc.edu/eresources/AtoZ.htm#E. The
National Library of Education also has a toll-free number for your education
questions at 1-800-424-1616.
FamilyConnections
A non-profit organization whose "mission is to improve the quality
of early education and care" for children in Austin. Designed as a resource
for child care providers, teachers, and parents, their Family Place Library
checks out children's books, toys, puzzles, games and videos; checks out books,
videos and audiotapes on parenting and caregiving; has a mobile lending library
that visits child care programs; offers workshops; provides consultation services
and information resources (TeleParent and TeleTeacher lines, a job bank, newsletters
and directories, etc.); and has facilities equipped with a laminator, a diecut
machine and low cost/free materials for patron use. The web site also lists
links for child-care professionals, links for parents, links for children, plus
Austin links.
KidsHealth
Created by pediatric medical experts,
KidsHealth lists sources for children, for parents and for professionals on children's
health.
National Association for the Education of Young Children
NAEYC links to resources for parents, resources for early childhood professionals, the last ten years of
their magazine Young Children, plus other information about
accreditation, the organization, its conferences, its publications, its
activities and membership.
National Center for Early Development & Learning
"NCEDL focuses on enhancing the cognitive, social and emotional development of children from birth through age
eight." It attempts to translate research into practice. The site has a search
engine and is arranged into news, research, products, people, and links to other
sites.
National Network for Child Care
NNCC offers articles on many topics relating to child care, including child development.
Society for Research in Child Development
Information about the society and its publications in the web. Publications
include their Newsletter and monographs, Child Development, and
Child Development Abstracts and Bibliography.
Tufts University Child and Family Webguide
"A directory that evaluates, describes and provides links to hundreds of sites containing child development
research and practical advice. Topics are selected on the basis of parent
recommendations; they cover all ages, from early child development through
adolescence."
Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families
Provides access to child development and child care information for parents and professionals. "Parenting
A-Z" and "Professional Topics A-Z" offer hundreds of links to specific
topics.
For comments or questions about these resources, contact Sylvia Owens
updated January 7, 2008