First 1000 Days
The Louisiana Children’s Museum is excited to announce the launch of our highly-anticipated First 1000 Days Program. In collaboration with researchers, scientists, health professionals, artists, and educators, we have designed a support system to help parents navigate the first three years on your parenting journey.
During this period, a child’s attachment and bond to his/her primary caregiver(s) is shaped, and 85% of the architecture of the brain is formed. These gains build on the enormous potential of each child and are shaped largely by positive experiences between the child and the caregiver. The First 1000 Days Program will be based on evidence and research, will be accessible to parents through in-person and virtual / digital methods, and will grow on a week-by-week basis with appropriate developmental needs and resources.
The goals of the program include communicating to new parents the powerful role they have in building their baby’s brains, through everyday / everywhere experiences, and specifically those that can be found at the LCM’s interactive experiences. Our team will share the ways in which everyday moments can contribute to the healthy social-emotional, cognitive, and physical development of their babies. Parents in the program can become engaged advocates and supporters of their child’s optimal growth and development, while building a network with other parents during this special time.
Attachment Vitamins: A Child Development Course for Parents & Caregivers
Join Louisiana Children's Museum for Attachment Vitamins, a special group for parents and caregivers. If you have a child between the ages of birth and 5 years, this 10-week course supports learning around child development and sheds light on your child's experiences and possible meanings behind their behaviors. You'll learn ways you can promote secure attachment and healthy socialization and better understand the impact of stress or trauma on both your child and yourself.
The First 1000 Days includes many touchpoints for parents:
Online
We have developed a custom-made app designed to track the range of developmental gains and activities to support optimal development. Tips, prompts and suggestions (aligned with the age of the child) will be sent weekly to each participating parent. Videos will offer role modeling of suggested activities and engaged play. We will invite parents to upload their videos and examples of attachment and engagement as well, as we build our online community.
At Home
We will provide suggestions from brain-development experiences through everyday / everywhere experiences that parents can access throughout daily tasks and activities (bath time, dressing, grocery shopping, laundry time, neighborhood walks, etc.).
At the Museum
Each participating family will receive a free, 3-year (1000 days) family membership to the LCM. This will allow families to enjoy unlimited visits and to participate and create learning experiences designed to foster their child’s brain building. Bridging the museum space with on-line learning and at-home examples models how content (identification of food, their colors and their shapes) and context (the grocery exhibit or your own kitchen) intersect.
Play With Me Exhibit Gallery
Families participating in First 1000 Days will be invited to programmatic demonstrations, like daily story time, animal yoga and mindfulness, Messy Play, and more. The activities will be facilitated for children and will include explanations for developmental gains explained to their caregivers.
Support System
Parents will share questions, answers, and experiences with each other and with our parent mentors and Early Learning Director as we travel through this parenting journey together.
Through Support of Professionals
Monthly presentations designed for this program, and supportive “teaching tools” (such as books, toys and games) will be offered at the Museum during In Dialogue sessions each month. Partners in this project include Tulane Institute of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, the Policy Institute for Children, and the Learning and Brain Development Lab.
To learn more about this program, contact the Louisiana Children’s Museum’s Early Learning Director Terri Baquet at tbaquet@lcm.org.
