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Nouveautés
Sellout Crowd for Dr. Fraser Mustard
Today's sellout crowd at Aultsville Theatre helped to raise much needed funds for programming across the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry area for our youngest citizens. The 650 participants were greeted by the sound of music from the S.J. McLeod Public School Band. The perfect introduction for a two-hour presentation by one of the world's leading experts in early childhood development.
The evening before proved to be as great a success as the Cornwall Public Library hosted an informal meeting with Dr. Fraser Mustard. Success By 6 members and area school boards embraced the opportunity to exchange with one of the leading experts on child development about how to best support local children 0-6 years.
Early child development [ECD] is the basis for learning, behaviour and health [physical and mental] in the later stages of development. If schools are to improve the education and development of children they must work on an integrated program with early child development program involving parents and other care givers, according to this expert.
Speaking at a presentation run by Success By 6 - Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Dr Fraser Mustard said scientific research clearly showed that quality parenting and ECD programs in the first five years greatly affect a child's brain development and subsequent development.
"For our schooling system to be really effective, we must focus on integrating our primary school programs with early childhood parenting programs, because play-based learning influences the wiring and sculpting of the neurons in the brain during this sensitive period of development that creates the base for future learning," said Dr Mustard.
Dr Mustard is a world-renowned expert in early childhood and Founding President of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
Dr Mustard said economists, including Heckman the 2000 Nobel Prize winner, were now recognising that investing in early childhood development programs, incorporating both health and educational aspects, was an investment in the future of a nation.
“These are the early child development concepts on which the Success By 6 Managing Council wants to build a positive future for the children of this community” said Richard Abell, Chair of Success By 6 – SDG. This is an exciting new direction for the United Way of Cornwall and District who holds the license for Success By 6 and has shown their dedication and desire to look beyond fund distribution and more into community building and problem-solving.
Thank you goes out once again to the event sponsors - Bell Canada, the Eastern Ontario Health Unit, the Eastern Ontario Training Board, and St. Lawrence College.
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