Have you heard that J. Ronald Lally’s latest book For Our Babies: Ending the Invisible Neglect of America’s Infants is available as a Kindle edition on Amazon.com? If you haven’t done so yet, I hope you’ll order your copy today. Paperback is available too of course.

For the last forty years,   J. Ronald Lally has worked with state and federal agencies to improve services for infants and toddlers in the United States and abroad. In this new book, Lally paints a stark picture of how our babies have been forced to shoulder the fallout of massive societal changes over the past 60 years—changes that have resulted in less access to their parents, longer time spent in child care, and substandard child care and services.

For Our Babies features the resonant voices of American parents speaking of their hopes, worries, and frustrations living in a country with too few parental and child supports. It describes American parents’ general lack of awareness about how little they receive from their state and federal governments compared to parents living in other countries. This important book includes crucial testimony from developmental psychologists, child care providers, health and mental health professionals, economists, specialists in brain development, and early learning educators about how policy and practices must change in the United States if parents are to raise children who will become healthy, productive members of society.

This book is part of the For Our Babies initiative.

The 17^th Annual virtual Birth to Three Institute (vBTT) sponsored by the Office of Head Start is a FREE five-week online professional development experience that will run from May 28 – June 27, 2013. This year’s theme is: Nurturing the Foundations for Success with Children and Families.

Each week will focus on one content track related to early childhood education (Inclusive Child Development; Child Health and Prenatal Services; Family and Community Partnerships; Management and Professional Development; Home Visiting and Family Child Care) and will include one plenary webcast and two relating webinars.

During the first week of the Institute,  J. Ronald Lally, will present a plenary webcast titled The Foundations for Life and School Readiness Begin in Infancy. This webcast will take place Tuesday, May 28, 2013 • 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. EDT.  The summary of Lally’s session reads: “Early experiences influence the architecture of our brains. Parents and caregivers, then, have a significant impact on a child’s learning. This plenary talk will address the connection between experiences in infancy and school readiness and how early experiences and social interactions provide the foundation for lifelong learning”.

Participants can register for FREE for each content track or choose sessions separately. Registration will remain open during the five weeks of the conference; however, slots are limited so secure your sessions by registering today on the Office of Head Start Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center website registration page.

Please join Dr. Lally in his webcast plenary session on Tuesday May 28th 2:00-3:30 EDT.  It will be great to “SEE” you there!

Download the final Birth to Three Institute program: FINAL Program.

Today the President released his 2014 budget proposal, which includes important investments in our nation’s infants and toddlers including:  

•    $1.4 billion to expand Early Head Start and create Early Head Start/Child Care partnerships;

•    $500 million in increased mandatory funding through the Child Care and Development Fund, which would serve an additional 100,000 children;

•    $200 million for discretionary grants through the Child Care and Development Block Grant for quality improvement;

•    $11 billion over the next 10 years in new funds from a proposed increase in the tobacco tax to invest in extending and expanding home visiting programs;

•    $20 million to expand Part C early intervention services; and

•    $300 million increase to Promise Neighborhoods funding.

The For Our Babies campaign applauds the President’s commitment to the earliest years of a child’s life as demonstrated in his recent budget proposal.

For more information about this historic proposal, read ZERO TO THREE’s official press statement.

Read the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2014 here.

J.Ronald Lally’s latest book For Our Babies: Ending the Invisible Neglect of America’s Infants is available April 2013. The book shares the hopes, worries, and frustrations of American parents, who receive little support for their children or themselves as parents. It also reveals their lack of awareness about how little assistance they receive compared to parents in other countries.

In addition, the book provides crucial testimony from developmental psychologists, child care providers, health and mental health professionals, economists, specialists in brain development, and early learning educators. The book addresses how U.S. policy and practices must change if all parents are to raise children to be physically and emotionally healthy and productive members of society. Reserve your copy today through WestEd!

Here’s what people are saying:

“Lally is right. Our economy and our society will be stronger if public policies do more to help raise healthy babies. I applaud his tireless efforts to increase national awareness about the critical importance of improving early childhood development for all families.”
—U.S. Congressman George Miller (D-CA-11)

“Dr. Lally’s book sensitively captures the tension in knowing that infants at birth are both full of unlimited developmental potential and at the same time desperately dependent on their surroundings. And, thankfully, it is filled with ways to act on his informed and urgent plea for action to change policy and practice.”
—Carol Brunson Day, President, Brunson Phillips & Day, Inc.

“Professor Lally draws on a lifetime of working with infants to review and synthesize the research about the importance of the first 3 years of life, and what babies need—especially from their relationships with parents and caregivers—to thrive developmentally and socially. He then paints a disturbing picture of how present policies are failing young children—the invisible neglect. This book is a ‘must read’ for all who care about young children and their future.”
—Frank Oberklaid, Director, Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne

“This is a clarion and moving call on behalf of our most vulnerable and valuable citizens, our amazing babies. It gathers together the freshest and broadest knowledge of what they need to flourish and contrasts this to the myriad ways our policies and practices consistently fail them. For Our Babies is an energizing, enlightening, and wholly loving book.”
—Jeree Pawl, Clinical Pyschologist, Board of Directors, Zero to Three

“Lally and others, including some of the economists cited in this book, have shown how investments in quality early education and preventive healthcare will more than pay for themselves when children reach adulthood. . . . This book is a starting place for urgently needed dialogue that will finally lead to action.”
—From the Foreword by T. Berry Brazelton and Joshua Sparrow, Harvard University

Reserve your copy today through WestEd!