4 Resources To Celebrate the Week of the Young Child

According to the First Five Years Fund, federal and state early learning opportunities served more than 4.2 million children and families, or 18% of children ages 5 and under, in 2024. Research shows that children who complete a Pre-K program are more likely to achieve academic readiness, experience better health outcomes, and enroll in college.

To acknowledge the importance of early childhood education (ECE) in helping children achieve long-term success, each year the National Association for the Education of Young Children hosts the Week of the Young Child (#WOYC25)—and we’re excited to join in! This week-long event celebrates early learning and recognizes the critical role that teachers, families, communities, and policymakers play in fostering early learning opportunities.

At Digital Promise, we’re committed to advancing opportunities that not only help young learners build foundational skills, but also address the needs of early learning providers. We collaborate closely with ECE practitioners, families, and developers to create research-backed solutions that support meaningful learning experiences for young children.

Learn how ECE programs support social and economic mobility

Early childhood education providers earn about $14 per hour in the United States. However, in rural areas, ECE providers earn a median of $11.42. Our report, “From Childcare to Educare: Inspiring Change in Early Childhood Education for Rural Tennessee,” examines the inequities and experiences in the ECE workforce and provides recommendations for employers and policymakers to improve professional development and economic security.

Build and demonstrate instructional skills

Digital Promise micro-credentials offer affordable, flexible, and personalized learning opportunities that showcase an individual’s competency in specific skills. Some micro-credentials that ECE providers can earn include:

1. Implementing Media Projects in Early Childhood strengthens one’s ability to create and implement effective content-specific instruction in PreK–grade 2 using media to help students explore, create, and share their learning.
2. Social-Emotional Learning in Today’s Classroom verifies understanding and the ability to implement major themes of social-emotional learning (SEL) into classroom practice.
3. Develop Learner Agency allows the educator to design learning experiences that support learners to exercise agency and own their learning.

Integrate STEM learning in preschool education

A recent report by the National Academies calls attention to the importance of promoting science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) early in childhood. To meet this need, early learning researchers at Digital Promise co-designed Early Science with Nico & Nor®, a digital preschool science program for school and home.

The program, which includes 11 science learning apps, hands-on activities, and a teacher and family guide, provides STEM lessons for educators to use in the classroom along with activities for parents to try at home. Learn more about the research behind Early Science with Nico & Nor®.

Prepare the next generation of problem solvers

Our Preschool Computational Thinking (CT) activities, the result of a research project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, helps early childhood educators and parents teach young learners developmentally-appropriate computational thinking skills.

For example, young children can learn the CT skill of problem decomposition (breaking down problems or tasks into smaller parts) by breaking down their daily routine of getting ready for school into smaller tasks, such as brushing their teeth, getting dressed, and eating breakfast.

Watch this video to learn more about how our researchers co-designed these activities with teachers and families.

We encourage communities to get involved during Week of the Young Child by amplifying efforts on social media using #WOYC25 and engaging in activities from the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

To stay up to date with our ECE research and solutions:

• Sign up for the Learning Sciences Connections newsletter to stay up to date with early learning research at Digital Promise
• Sign up for the ConnectED Pathways newsletter to stay up to date on learner pathways resources and projects.