Even before filmmaker Rob Reiner launched Proposition 10 in 1998 — a tobacco tax campaign to fund services for young children in California — he was working to draw the nation’s attention to early childhood development through his I Am Your Child Foundation and a series of “First Years Last Forever” videos on parent-child interaction and early development.
“Startling new scientific discoveries have given us insight about the emotional and intellectual development of a child and what we as parents can do during those first three years of life to affect what kind of person he or she will turn out to be,” he said in the opening of videos about the research.
“There was a lot of excitement,” Michael Levine, senior vice president and chief knowledge officer at Sesame Workshop, said in an interview, adding that Reiner “supercharged” efforts at the time to create more support for funding programs serving young children and “cemented [early-childhood] advocates’ interest in having other spokespeople.”
“All the stuff we’ve learned about toxic stress, the ACEs stuff — it was pretty forward-looking stuff,” said Levine, referring to adverse childhood experiences, such as poverty, abuse or neglect, or having a family member in prison. Research shows that multiple such experiences in early childhood can impede learning and have long-term consequences on health.
To read more of Linda Jacobson's article, visit: https://www.educationdive.com/...he-limelight/532643/
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