Websites that we found most useful on development:

1. http://www.talaris.org/timeline.htm#
Good detailed child development time line that includes multiple dimensions in growth.  Launch the free timeline based on research data from Talaris.  

2. http://www.brainconnection.com/topics/?main=fa/child-brain
General site about brain development includes topics on kids and adults. Many educational information for those wanting to enrich childrens reading readiness
within the site.

3. http://secc.rti.org/
For the true scientist, this site has the most comprehensive child care study conducted to date to determine how variations in child care are related to children's development.  This study is supported by the National Institute of
Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) through a cooperative agreement (U10) that calls for a scientific collaboration between the grantees and NICHD staff.  Again - it is for the true scientist out there.

4. http://www.k-12.state.tn.us/smart/index.htm
This website link to the smart start program by the state of TN. You can select the age of your child, then get the appropriate activities and development
milestones information.


One abstract of interest from the NICHD's extensive study:

NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (1998).
Early child care and self-control, compliance and problem behavior at twenty-four and thirty-six months.  Child Development, 69.

To evaluate child-care effects on young children’s self-control, compliance, and problem behavior, children enrolled in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care were tested and observed in the laboratory and in child care at 24 and 36 months, and mothers and caregivers completed questionnaires. Indicators of child-care quantity, quality, stability, type, and age of entry, along with measures of family background, mothering, and child characteristics obtained through the first 3 years of life were used to predict 2 and 3 year child functioning. Results revealed:
  1. mothering to be a stronger and more consistent predictor of child outcomes than child care;
  2. little evidence that early, extensive, and continuous care was related to problematic child behavior, in contrast to results from earlier work;
  3. that among the child-care predictors, child-care quality was the most consistent predictor of child functioning, although limited variance could be explained by any (or all ) child-care variables; and
  4. that virtually none of the anticipated interactions among child-care factors or between them and family or child measures proved significant.