Early Care and Education Projects (ECEP), an outreach unit in the College of Education and Health Professions, was recently awarded a three-year, $6 million grant to expand and enhance its current work and explore new technologies and programs designed to support its vision of improving the quality of care for young children across Arkansas.

ECEP has provided early childhood professionals with high-quality professional development and comprehensive, up-to-date training since 1992. Its primary funding comes from the Office of Early Childhood housed in the Arkansas Department of Education Division of Elementary and Secondary Education. 

The new grant funding will advance many of ECEP's ongoing programs and projects, including implementing Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA), a revolutionary technological device designed to support brain development and children's developmental outcomes.

With LENA, children in Arkansas schools wear "conversation pedometers" that track a child's conversational interactions. These interactions support brain structure and function, reading and vocabulary skills, IQ scores and social-emotional and language development. Using the data collected by the "pedometers," classroom teachers are coached throughout the program to use strength-based guidance methods to review the data and set goals to increase interactions in the classroom.  

Since the recent launch of AR LENA Grow, project program manager Robin Jones has already reported a positive impact on children, classroom teachers and families.  

"We are excited to have the opportunity to provide LENA Grow through the AR LENA Grow Project to infant and toddler classrooms across the state of Arkansas," Jones said. "LENA Grow delivers an evidence-based solution to boosting children's language, literacy and social-emotional development, all while improving teacher satisfaction and classroom quality."

Expanding the Family Child Care Network is another ECEP objective that will benefit from the new grant. 

They will use the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) curriculum to support school readiness in children. HIPPY helps family child care providers with the resources and skills needed to build trusting relationships and create early learning opportunities for children.

In partnership with Curricula Concepts, ECEP has begun implementing "Be Well Care Well," an evidence-based, 12-month well-being intervention focused on supporting caregivers to be emotionally healthy and provide emotionally supportive caregiving. With the help of new funds, ECEP will be able to hire well-being coaches for the program.

Be Well Care Well uses the eight dimensions of wellness to support the holistic well-being of early childhood educators. The program's three-pronged approach - featuring a well-being coach, well-being activities guide and well-being committee - focuses on building resiliency in caregivers, reducing the effects of stress and bolstering their ability to meet the needs of the young children in their care.

ECEP launched a shared services website in 2021 known as Arkansas Resource Connections to serve as a centralized resource hub for professionals who provide early care and education for young children in the state.

The free website offers over 2,500 resources to assist in day-to-day activities, including curriculum tools, training information, learning standards and much more. The new grant will help add a best practice toolkit, job board and marketing overlay that helps to communicate the benefits and value of access to the Arkansas Connections platform before caregivers sign up.

"The toolkit provides guidance and recommended best practices for licensed child care centers and family child care homes," said director of Early Care and Education Projects Deniece Honeycutt. "The Arkansas-specific job posting board and applicant management service assists with recruitment efforts of local child care providers at no charge to them."

More information about ECEP's courses, projects and programs for early childhood professionals can be found on their website.