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Excerpt: "In a recent study, Dr. Rossana Bisceglia and her colleagues wanted to see what factors affected mothers' ability to provide sensitive care to their children. The hypothesis was that both biological and environmental variables would impact mothers’ sensitivity, and that certain combinations of factors would be more detrimental to parenting than others."

The following are responses to the Government of Ontario's Modernizing Child Care in Ontario: Sharing Conversations, Strengthening Partnerships, Working Together discussion paper.

The government of New Brunswick announced it would be "investing an additional $1 million in the Day Care Assistance program to increase childcare subsidies and to expand the program eligibility to help families with early learning and childcare costs." This funding is part of the government's $38-million three-year action plan Putting Children First.

The provincial government has "re-instated the wage enhancement of $2.75 per hour for early learning and childcare staff. The initiative supports the pay equity measures for early learning and childcare staff".

ADM Darryl Sturtevant, Ministry of Children and Youth Services and ADM Jim Grive, Ministry of Education circulated a memo to Directors of Education, Best Start Committees and Data Analysis Coordinator Host Agencies regarding a review of the current EDI and KPS.

The Premier of New Brunswick provided a progress report on its three-year action plan, Putting Children First: Positioning Early Childhood for the Future, unveiled last spring. Included in the plan are integrating early childhood and education services, realigning the boundaries for local early childhood services with school district boundaries and extending the definition of early childhood up to children 8-years-old.

The government announced additional professional development funding for staff and board members of child care centres. "Grants are provided to reimburse costs associated with attending professional development events such as workshops or conferences held in the province."

The government announces a commitment to fund 20 new preschool and 45 new school-age child care spaces.

Report by Kerry McCuaig, Jane Bertrand and Stuart Shanker: "Over the last few decades the science of early development has witnessed explosive growth. New technologies confirm that infancy and early childhood are the first and most critical phases of human development. A child’s earliest experiences shape the structure of genes and the architecture of the developing brain. At the same time families have changed, becoming more diverse and are raising young children in circumstances that are significantly more complex, and for many, more stressful."

Posted on Longwoods.com.

Article by Kerry McCuaig: "The needs of modern families have changed; the services designed to support them have not. Children's programming in Canada is divided into three distinct streams – education, child care, and family and intervention supports.... The result is service silos. Children and families don't experience their lives in silos; their needs can't be dissected and addressed in isolation."

Discussion with Michal Perlman, Jenny Jenkins, Michael Baker, Kerry McCuaig,and Erica Okezie Phillips.

Early years programs are undergoing significant changes in Ontario. Full day kindergarten will be available to all 4-and 5-year-old children by 2014. School boards are required to secure extended day options where there is sufficient demand. Child care programs are repurposing to serve younger aged children and their families.