| ■ CDC Urges Child-Care Providers to Monitor Emotional Development | 06.11.10 |
| A U.S. public awareness campaign about childhood development is being expanded to target more than 400,000 child-care facilities across the nation, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. The "Learn the Signs. Act Early" campaign is designed to increase awareness about the importance of monitoring a child's social and emotional development, including looking for early warning signs of autism and other developmental disabilities. The expanded program will offer free materials to help child-care providers and preschool teachers educate parents about child development, the CDC said. "More than 8.7 million children younger than 5 years of age in the United States are in some type of child-care arrangement," Alison Johnson, acting director of the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, said in a prepared statement. "Child-care providers and preschool teachers are in a special position to watch for (developmental) delays and to promote early identification and action when a delay is suspected. In fact, because they see children interact in peer groups, child-care providers can be the first to observe early warning signs of a developmental delay such as autism," Johnson said. The CDC campaign also encourages parents to talk to their child's doctor about any concerns they may have regarding their child's social and emotional development. |