April Is the Month of the Young Child

4/7/2011

Governor Daniels has proclaimed April as “Celebrating the Young Hoosier Child Month.”  Pace Community Action Agency’s Head Start and Early Head Start programs provide quality early childhood education to over 450 children each year in Knox, Greene, Daviess, and Sullivan Counties.  The education focuses on assessing each child’s development and incorporating leaning activities through play to help the child discover and grow.

Positive early childhood experiences are essential to the health and development of a child.  The brain is 90% of its adult size by age 5; the window of time between 0-5 lays the ground work for how the individual will process information and learn over their entire lifespan (zerotothree.org).  Early Head Start works with babies and their caregivers to provide enriching everyday learning opportunities.

Children in our Head Start program receive comprehensive pre-school services that help prepare the child and family for their entire educational career.  The annual average cost-per-child for these services at Pace is approximately $6,579.  The value these services afford to the family and community are expansive. 

Children benefit by receiving dental care, screenings for disabilities, as well as individualized lesson planning.  Children are assessed in domains such as social/ emotional development, gross motor, cognitive development and language development three times a year.  Of children participating in Pace Head Start, 90% showed progression of at least one step.  Angie Lange, Program Coordinator at Pace, said, “A child may enter our program with limited social skills that hinder them from making friends or participating in group learning activities.  Through working with the child, our teachers are able to help the child and parents learn constructive ways to interact with others thus making the child more capable of learning.”

Although April is dedicated as the month of the young child, Pace demonstrates this devotion daily through services and programs provided.  Pace Community Action is a private not-for-profit corporation with a mission to provide support services that improve the community and encourage self-reliance. Information about all of our services is provided on the website or through contacting us at (812) 882-7927.