Early Learning DVD
United Way Distributes DVD to Public at No Charge

"Hey grownup, I'm a learning machine and my brain is ready to grow!" says the voice of an off-screen child in the opening minutes of a new DVD, "Building Minds, Building Futures," being distributed by United Way of Greater Chattanooga at no cost to area parents.

"United Way of Greater Chattanooga continues to seek ways to help parents understand how important children's first few years are in their development," says Dr. Mary Tanner, who is featured on the DVD, about its development.

With the sponsorship of Chattem Incorporated, this DVD was developed locally to graphically share with parents and caregivers the importance of language development and to impress on viewers that reading skills are the key to success in life. But what are the keys to reading? United Way illustrates these in a way that is not condescending, preachy or technical.

Some highlights from the video include the following feature segments:

• Dr. Sarah J. Sandefur, Associate Professor in the Teacher Preparation Academy at UTC, illustrates the importance of just talking to your newborn - children who hear only 3 million words in their first year of life are drastically less prepared to learn than children who hear 11 million words their first year.
• Dr. Mary Poston Tanner, Dean of the College of Health, Education and Professional Studies at UTC, explains that listening, reading and thinking in later life are all based on language skills learned as a small child. Why? A human baby's objective is to learn to communicate: because language skills build all other skills, because they teach babies to form trust bonds with the adults around them and because verbal contact stimulates a child's brain to grow.
• Dr. Thomas Moore, author, early childhood education consultant and recording artist, shared the joy he found in his parents' voices and explains the important information about words that parents' voices transfer to their children.
• Dr. Pam Schiller, author of "Building Brain Power in the Early Years," discusses the importance of building children's brain wiring in their early years by just talking to them - the sound of a human voice literally causes connections to form between children's neurons. The more connections, the more skills and better able to learn a child will be.

The DVD also has a section that provides internet links and phone numbers for resources important to the different areas in a child's development: Help Me Grow (health resources), Parents Tools (developmental and educational resources) and While You Work (day care resources).

Chattem graciously funded the development, filming and editing of the video. Zan Guerry, CEO of Chattem and Chairman of the United Way Board of Directors, is deeply involved with children's issues and has made Invest in Children initiatives a program focus during his United Way leadership.

The Tennessee Department of Human Services and Sonic restaurants provided partial sponsorships for the duplication of the DVD along with the United Way of Greater Chattanooga. United Way will be distributing these DVD to families throughout its service area. Human Services will be distributing copies of the DVD through their system of Child Care Resource and Referral Centers and the Child Care Broker offices located throughout the state.

Written by Lu Lewis, associate director of United Way's Invest in Children, the original script was created with a child's point of view in mind. This child's eye view point remained throughout the video's filming with local children and parents at the Creative Discovery Museum and its production by Video Ideas Production of Chattanooga.

The DVD is available at no cost to families living in Hamilton or Marion counties in Tennessee and Catoosa, Dade and Walker counties in Georgia. Just call the United Way offices at 423-752-0300 or dial 2-1-1. Operators will take your information and a DVD will be sent in the mail. If there is a distribution point in the caller's area, the operator will provide that information.

These sites currently have the DVD for distribution:

• United Way Funded Child Care Centers

o Children's Academy for Education & Learning 1800 S. Greenwood Avenue
o Children's Home/Chambliss Shelter 315 Gillespie Road
o Little Miss Mag Child Care Center 214 Walnut Street
o Maurice Kirby Child Care Center 2500 South Market Street
o Pro Re Bona Day Nurseries 1707 Dodds Avenue
o Signal Centers, Inc. 109 N. Germantown Road
o Volunteer Community School, Inc. 506 Spears Avenue
o YMCA Henry Branch 5600 Brainerd Road #A-24

• The Parents Place 2300 Bailey Avenue
• The Creative Discovery Museum 321 Chestnut Street (only during their monthly Free Family Nights, the 2^nd Thursday of each month from 5:30 to 8 p.m.)
• Classical Radio WSMC 90.5 FM - Southern Adventist University
• LaFayette Care Mission - 105 N. Chattanooga Street, LaFayette, GA

Call the United Way at 423-752-0328 for more information.