Early Learning Network holds annual event

by John Dowd

Last weekend the Bitterroot Early Learning Network (BELN) hosted their second annual Early Insights Screening and Symposium. Ariella Wells, the executive director of the BELN, said the event is one of her favorites of the year, and it brings minds and voices together to speak about how society and communities can come together for child development and why it is important that they do. 

According to Wells, the need in Montana is clear, and she gave some statistics given out by BELN, to help illustrate why early childhood health is so essential to the future, why the Ravalli County area is lacking and how that is quantified.

According to BELN, the state of Montana is ranked 47 of all U.S. States in child care policies, and only 10% of the care here is considered “high-quality.” Wells added that much of the important development of a child comes in the early years, with another statistic stating that 90% of brain development takes place in the first five years. Montana students in grades three through eight rank at only 47% proficiency in reading and 37.5% in math skills. BELN attributes this to the lack of high quality of childcare available in the area.

The event last Saturday was geared towards the local community, calling in speakers from across the state and showing a documentary. All of this was meant to fuel conversation around early childhood development regarding mental health, nutrition and engagement and how focusing on those aspects leads to better adults. 

Four presenters spoke, starting with Holland Buck and Melissa Eastlick. Buck is the program manager for “Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies,” a nonprofit founded in 1984 that strives to assist families in improving health, safety and the overall well-being of children from ages zero to three. The collaborative organization provides tools, training and resources to mothers, and advocates for improved access to care. Buck works to empower professionals and families to build sustainable support systems, connecting people across Montana, and she spoke on this during her talk.

Eastlick is a child and parent therapist who has also been an early childhood educator for over 20 years. One of her specialties is early relational health, which she advocated during her talk on infant and early childhood mental health. Her presentation focused on building better relationships when children are young.

Though this may seem like an obvious concept, recent studies have doubled down on the importance of simple quality time. According to Eastlick, professionals have “never really looked at it on a deeper level of how interconnected it is,” and it supports what they see in children later in life. Eastlick explained they have found that time spent with youth does not need to be complicated. Parents just need to “be there to delight and be present,” for their kids. She added that parents shouldn’t worry about all the sports, activities, clubs and more.

“They definitely add to the experience, but when they become stressful,” said Eastlick, they take away from what matters.

According to her and other experts, what matters is the “one on one” time, without structure. This encourages independence, creates flexibility and makes self-driven adults. “Structure has its place, but so does nothing,” said Eastlick.

After Buck and Eastlick spoke, the event hosted a screening of the movie “Brain Matters,” a 2019 documentary that focuses on early childhood development. Part of the documentary featured a study that followed children from youth to adulthood. The study compared a control group to those that received quality early learning. It also studied how those lessons and that treatment benefited not only the children, but the parents and siblings of those in the study. In fact, according to Wells, this was a “big conversational piece that not only are these children benefitted, but these lasting effects are benefitting their families as well.”

Wells said BELN was excited to show this film, and for the conversations it sparked later in the event. 

After the documentary, participants had lunch which was provided by several local groups and organizations, then more speakers presented. While the first two speakers spoke on early childhood mental health, the next two focused on nutrition in early childhood. The first to speak on this was Grace Nichols, the food and agriculture development director at Ravalli County Economic Development Authority. 

Nichols assists farmers and food businesses in the valley with planning, grant writing, workshops and networking to help get their food on local tables as well as to improve quality. She has had a long time interest in farm-to-school programs, and hosts several events, like one in the fall that gets school cafeteria and management staff onto a local apple orchard to see the process and how to find and benefit from quality, local produce. 

The final speaker of the day was Taylor Finley, a registered dietitian with BELN and the health and nutrition coordinator with Evergreen Saplings. She emphasized that early childhood nutrition is essential.

Both the speakers that talked after the film presented on the current situation of local area food systems and how that translates to use, both in school settings as well as community. At the end of the event, Wells said they held a large group collaboration, led by statewide entities like SPARK Montana, Raise Montana and more. Topics revolved around questions from question slips that participants filled out throughout the day, as well as a few prepared questions. These collaborations were done in both small group conversations as well as large forums.

For more information about how to get involved with future BELN events, interested parties can learn more at beln.org.