Universal Reassurance

      Universal Reassurance. With being a military family wherever you go provides a great deal of questions and concerns. Will they have child development centers in the country? Is the curriculum the same and do they have the same mission statement with helping military families? Having these questions and concerns answered and to have even more support can provide a sense of reassurance that no matter where you are the teachings of the CDC will be the same. Training and Curriculum Specialist, LaVone Bradley at the Patrick Wade CDC answers the probing questions that most active duty families would have.
     One concern is if the curriculum is the same and how could this be beneficial to everyone. Ms. Bradley explains that, "Child Youth Programs are based on a universal assessment tool called, “Creative Curriculum Gold”  This system allows teachers to observe each child three times a week in certain goal areas (social, cognitive, physical, the arts, etc.) and then with those observations, the teachers make meaningful connections to curriculum activities to scaffold each child’s developmental milestones.  It is beneficial for parents to know “what their child is learning” because military children tend to spend the majority of their waking hours away from home (in a center setting)." Having the same goal around the world to help children enables the child to start where they left off at the last duty station. This universal resource to help children develop ( even when in different countries) I believe is a very helpful tool to make the child's life a little easier. LaVone Bradley presented herself as very knowledgeable and takes a pride in the work that she gets to do to help military families and their children.