First Five Nebraska is an initiative of Early Futures Partnership
First Five Nebraska is an initiative of Early Futures Partnership
Families that play together build strong relationships. Whether it's reading together, playing board games during cold, blustery days or playing outside in the summer, interacting with young children helps build the strong neural foundation and social-emotional skills they'll need to succeed in school and later in life.
Babies are born ready to learn. At birth, the brain contains about 100 billion neurons that are connected by synapses carrying electrochemical signals in response to stimuli from the world around us. During the earliest years, those synapses are firing at an astonishing rate, and they become the neural foundation upon which everything else is built.
Science and data drive our work. A child’s ability to learn is built upon a neurological foundation that begins before birth and is largely in place by age 5. The quality of a child’s earliest experiences, interactions and relationships physically shape the neural architecture of the developing brain during those first five years.