Please join us for the 2012 Parent-Child Home Program National Conference!

Informative speakers, engaging discussions, insightful stories, and workshops that run the gamut from early brain development to essential school readiness skills to hands-on art activities that promote early literacy. You'll find all this and more at the 2012 Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP) National Conference. Whether you're a long-time site coordinator or home visitor, just starting to implement the Program, or working on bringing PCHP to your community, there is something for you at this year's event. Anyone with an interest in early childhood development, early literacy, or home visiting is welcome. Registration is open, so be sure to reserve your spot now!

Literacy is the fundamental skill for learning; without an early exposure to books, children lose key skills which are critical for school success.  Dr. Navsaria will discuss broad principles of early brain and child development from a population health perspective, focusing on the central place literacy holds in a child's cognitive and developmental health, and discuss Reach Out and Read, a primary-care-based, clinician-delivered early literacy promotion program.

Dipesh Navsaria, MPH, MSLIS, MD is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He practices primary care pediatrics at a community health center in Madison, Wisconsin, serving a largely Latino and African-American population. He is also the founder and director of the Pediatric Early Literacy Projects at the University of Wisconsin, and most recently is the founding medical director of Reach Out and Read Wisconsin. Besides being a pediatrician, Dr. Navsaria holds a Master's Degree in library science focusing on children's librarianship.

Media and media culture play a bigger role in children's lives now than ever before. Violent, sexualized, and stereotyped images bombard children every day. So do the toys and other products linked to the media. How does this exposure affect children's development, learning, behavior, and play? How does it influence their developing ideas about how people treat each other and solve their conflicts? What should parents and teachers of young children know and do to counteract the negative effects and promote healthy development in these times?

Diane E. Levin, Ph.D. is Professor of Education at Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts where she has been training early childhood professionals for over twenty-five years. She teaches courses on play, violence prevention, and action research, and leads a summer institute on media literacy. She is an author of eight books, a founding member of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and TRUCE (Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children's Entertainment), and has spoken around the world on the impact of violence and media on children, families, and schools.