Helping children develop a healthy sense of themselves is a particularly challenging job especially for families whose structures, languages, origins and skin colors are targets of prejudice. As people working with families from many backgrounds, it is essential that we understand how crucial the first 2,000 days of life are for a child’s development, and the role we can play as children form their identity, personality and self-worth.
Led by Dr. Sarah R. Lytle from the world-renowned University of Washington Institute for Learning and Brain Science (I-LABS), this interactive workshop will feature groundbreaking research that will complicate and challenge children’s ideas of race and racism.
Framed by concepts of early education, parenting, and social-emotional development, this session will illustrate the importance of environmental cues, and the direct impact that race and racism have on children’s understanding of themselves and the social world.
As adults, knowing how children understand race and having open, honest conversations with our children about race is one of the best ways to acknowledge and address racial inequities in our society.
Participants at this workshop will explore ways adults can help children make sense of the racial complexities in our society as they grapple with stereotypes and how they affect their own identity.
