WATCH: How the Trauma of Gun Violence Impacts Early Academic Development

FILE - Children from a nearby daycare are escorted in Marcus Garvey Park in the Harlem neighborhood of New York Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007. Some states have moved ahead with plans of their own to boost child care subsidies after a national effort by Democrats in Washington stalled. New York lawmakers passed a state budget in the spring that calls for it to spend $7 billion making child care more affordable over the next four years. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

By Patrick Berkery

December 12, 2022

During her years as an early childhood educator, Lindsey Ramsey saw firsthand how important childcare facilities are to the development of young minds, and how the worries and experiences of trauma impacted academic development among young children.

“One day as we took the class for a nature walk, we passed a group of row homes, and a little girl immediately pointed out her house,” Ramsey, Assistant Director of Policy and Practice for Trying Together, said during a recent hearing on early childhood education and its effects on childhood literacy. “She told us this was where she lived, along with telling us that she had to sleep in a bathtub sometimes. I was very puzzled as to why she would say that. So when we made our way back to the facility, I asked one of my colleagues what she meant by sleeping in a bathtub. And I was told that sleeping in a bathtub was a form of protection while avoiding gunfire, and that gun violence occurred often in their community.”

You can watch Ramsey speak about the need for childcare facilities to serve as safe havens for children and help to cultivate critical developmental skills here.