Welcome! How much are young children affected by events that take place around them? A lot Young children are active players in the world. Even though they may not understand the meaning of what they see or hear, children absorb the images that surround them and are deeply impacted by the emotions of the people they rely on for love and security. Parents and caregivers play a very important role in helping young children cope with and recover from traumatic and stressful experiences. Providing young children with sensitive and responsive care takes a lot of emotional and phys cal energy. But the everyday moments shared between a child and caring adults can be mutually healing. During difficult and uncertain times, simply finding comfort in each other’s presence is the first step to helping young children cope and heal. The Power of Play Children are curious from the moment they are born. They want to learn about and understand their world. During the first five years of life children’s brains are growing faster than at any other time of life. Children’s early experiences shape how their brains develop. Children’s early learning sets the stage for school success. Good early experiences help a child’s brain develop well. The more work the brain does, the more it is capable of doing. When children play, their brains work hard. Playing is how children learn. Play comes naturally to children. They play during daily routines. They play during learning experiences you provide. Think about a baby who starts a peek-a-boo game with you when you pull her shirt over her head. The toddler or two-year-old who imitates the way you read to her as she reads to her doll. Or the three- or-four year old who scribbles and marks on a large sheet of paper you put out on the table, then announces proudly, “I wrote my name.” Sometimes it may look like not much is happening. Filling and dumping small objects from a can may seem boring to you. Playing blocks seems like just stacking them and knocking them down. But play is filled with opportunities for children to learn and develop new skills. When children play, they use all their senses – hearing, seeing, tasting, touching, smelling and moving – to gather information about their world. Later they will gather information through language. They organize and reorganize this information into their first pictures of themselves, others, and their world. Through the fun games in this Treasure Box, children – both older and younger – will develop new skills for talking and thinking, moving and doing, feeling and learning about themselves, and getting along with others.
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