What Young Children Need to Succeed

Developmental assets are the values, experiences and opportunities that children need to thrive.

Family Support:

Family members consistently provide plenty of love, attention, care and nurturing.

What you can do: Answer your infant cries immediately during the first few months of life. Hold your baby a lot.

Community Cherishes and Values Children:

Parents and other adults in the community value and appreciate young children, and activities and resources are available to promote their healthy development.

What you can do: Carry crayons and paper with you, and offer them to a child who is growing impatient in a waiting room, a bank line, a PTA meeting, or other public occasion. Ask business owners to keep a supply on hand all the time.

Other Adult Relationships:

Young children receive love and comfort from at least one adult other than their parents.

What you can do: As a neighbor or good friend, greet the child by name in the presence of the parents and engage the child in conversation to establish a comfortable, personal relationship. You can also support parents by offering to watch their children for a few hours.

Home-School Connection:

Adults in the home and at school or other out-of-home programs share information and activities that help young children feel secure and connected in the places where they spend time.

What you can do: Attend one of your child’s activities such as a holiday program and talk to the adult organizers about your child. Talk to your child’s care provider or preschool teacher and ask how you can support your child at home.

Early Literacy:

Young children enjoy talking, writing, looking at pictures and learning to read.

What you can do: Read to a young child every day. Buy books as presents or take a child to the library.

Positive Cultural Identity

Parents and adults encourage young children to feel good about their identity, including their physical abilities, ethnicity, faith and religion, family members, gender and language.

What you can do: Tell a child a story about something unique about you and ask him/ her to tell you something unique about him/ her. Celebrate your cultural holidays together.

For more information on developmental assets, visit: www.projectcornerstone.org