The Early Learning Project at Envision utah helps families engage in more nurturing interactions with their young children. The Science is clear—kids from language-rich environments forge stronger connections to family, school, and friends—all through their life!
Year after year, education emerges as a top concern for Utahns—that’s why we’re invested in making educational outcomes a top priority in our projects. And the latest research points toward the first few years before formal education as a time of critical intervention.
That’s why we launched the Early Learning Project in 2016 to help Utahns think about the importance of the first years of a child’s life, and how we can help children’s brains grow strong and flexible to ensure their future is bright for all of us. Together with over one hundred partners (and counting!), The Early Learning Project’s connecting Utah families and caregivers to brain development resources that turn everyday moments into better brain-building moments together.
You already have what it takes to be a great brain-builder!
You’ve got the capacity to engage with the children in your life in ways that will support strong, healthy brain development. When loving adults understand the science of brain development—and have a little coaching—they can can more confidently turn everyday moments with their children into brain-building moments.
What we do
Through our support of over a hundred organizations across Utah, parents and families can learn about the importance of
brain-building from trusted voices, caregivers, and providers in their communities.
It all starts with talking to your baby! Parents are a child’s first teachers, and children thrive best when they have parents, family, and other adults who lovingly interact with them.
When you talk, read, and sing to your babies and toddlers, you build their brains and help them learn everything from creativity and problem solving to spatial reasoning and self-discipline. Kids who hear more words are more likely to do well in school, earn higher incomes, and be prepared to learn and achieve their goals.
Preschool provides the foundational academic and social skills that kids need in school. And the effects last.
Many students are behind before they even start school, and they may never catch up. Kids from tough circumstances—including children growing up in poverty or children whose families don’t speak English—are especially likely to be unprepared for kindergarten and first grade. Because most brain development occurs early in life, the earlier we help these children, the more effective that help will be.
How we do it
Brain building 101
As it turns out, what you say (and how you say it) really matters when it comes to talking to babies and young kids. Your words—and the resulting language environment kids grow up in—can shape the trajectory of a child’s experiences throughout their life. It’s up to caring grown-ups like you and me to help ensure our kids’ brains are prepared for the challenges of friends, school, and the rest of their life!
The Early Learning Project is always on the hunt for good data and best practices, so we focus on sharing the latest research with partners who are busy helping parents and kids across Utah. We keep it simple to empower our partners, the early childhood community, and Utahns everywhere with the best data and tools available so parents and families can focus on the important stuff—raising those kiddos!
Howdy Partners
We reach thousands of parents and families every year through wonderful partners who care a lot about infants, toddlers, and young kids in Utah just like we do! We’re talking about trusted voices in the lives of families:
Pediatricians, nurses, audiologists, and other medical staff
Preschool teachers, childcare specialists, and other educators
Nonprofit organizations, religious groups, governments
When wonderful people are empowered with the latest brain-science, they turn around and empower parents, who can focus on the children who need it most.