Coming this summer: Washington State Essentials for Childhood plans to release a request for proposals. This opportunity will provide resources to support Vroom activation in community and tribal programs that work with families of children age 0 through 5. Vroom ( www.Vroom.org ) promotes positive adult-child relationships; back and forth brain-building interactions; and life skills promoting executive function. Successful applicants will describe how they use Vroom to connect with families...

The Washington State Department of Health, Essentials for Childhood Program is offering “starter sets” of Vroom print materials and technical assistance on how to use Vroom. This is suitable for any organization that serves or reaches families of young children (from prenatal through age five) in Washington State, even if early learning isn’t your primary focus. Vroom Materials are intended to raise awareness about the importance of brain building and the simplicity and fun of Vroom. These...

By Ryan White, Center for Health Journalism, July 23, 2020 Harvard’s Jack Shonkoff, a luminary in the field of early childhood, has spent years showing that events in the earliest years of life have profound implications for how budding brains develop, and in turn, shape a child’s later potential at school and work. Now, Shonkoff says it’s time to connect the brain to the rest of the body. “The message now is to say that there is a revolution going on in molecular biology and genomics and in...