700: The number of new neural connections formed every second in the first year of a child’s life.
18 months: The age at which differences in vocabulary appear between children of college-educated parents, and children whose parents did not graduate high school.
90 to 100 percent: The chance of significant developmental delays for a child who experiences risk factors such as poverty, maltreatment, a parent with mental illness or substance abuse problems, hunger, homelessness, or a mother with a low education level.
1 in 3: The odds that a child facing these stressors will later face heart disease.
The fragility of young, rapidly-developing children cannot be understated, said Shelia Evans-Tranumn, Ph.D., on April 18, at the ninth annual Young Child Expo and Conference, co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Education (GSE). Adverse circumstances can interrupt that development severely, and possibly permanently. Kicking off the three-day conference, James J. Hennessy, Ph.D., dean of GSE, presented Evans-Tranumn with the Excellence in Early Childhood award for her “extraordinary championship and advocacy for young children and their families.”
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| James J. Hennessy, Ph.D., dean of GSE, left, and Vincent Alfonso, Ph.D., professor psychological and educational services, right, present the Excellence in Early Childhood award to Shelia Evans-Tranumn |
