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Excerpt: "The Saskatchewan government announced more support for early childhood educators. Supports include: an increase in start-up grants for school-age spaces from $308 to $615 per child; Tuition Reimbursement Grants increase from $150 per individual course to $500; and from $450 to $1,500 for the Early Childhood Orientation course equivalent to an Early Childhood Educator I. In addition, early childhood educators working in a licensed setting can also apply for a Professional Development Support Grant to assist with the costs of attending in-province professional development opportunities taking place between September 1, 2010 and March 15, 2011."

Excerpt: "In 2007 the newly re-elected Premier Dalton McGuinty asked former deputy minister Charles Pascal to look into the best way to implement full day kindergarten for all Ontario four-and five-year-olds. Fast forward five years and another appointee, this time former banker Don Drummond, is being asked what to eliminate from the budget to ensure Ontario stays on track to eradicate a $16-billion deficit. Top Liberals are being ruthless signaling the provincial budget will proceed with previously announced corporate tax breaks while requiring ministries to cut up to 30 per cent of their costs. 'Bear the pain for future gain' is the current mantra but there won’t be much pain sharing. Program cuts tend to disproportionately affect the vulnerable while tax increases are shared across the economic strata. Finding cheaper ways of delivering full time kindergarten, or eliminating it altogether have been floated in the media. As Pascal told CBC radio, "There are two kinds of policy making—smart and dumb. And cutting full day kindergarten is definitely dumb.""

Nova Scotia Hearing and Speech Centres, with the agreement of the Department of Health and Wellness, will increase speech-language services to French-speaking families and focus on preventing communication disorders in young children through parent workshops and training for early childhood educators and other caregivers. $267,000 for the three-year pre-school initiative is provided by the Official Languages Health Contribution Program.

The Atkinson Centre joined Ryerson University, George Brown College, and the Child Care Resource and Research Unit in sponsoring a Symposium on "Pedagogical Leadership: Lead From Where You Stand" to discuss the recommendations for staffing Ontario's new Early Learning Programs and Child and Family Centre.

Excerpt: "If there was one thing the government could do right now for children and families in Ontario, what could that be? ....We have an opportunity to build a foundation for services for children and their families – but that means making a radical move toward something different and innovative. It means moving away from the rhetoric of business as usual, working within the silos that fit like an old sweater but are starting to smell a little mouldy."

The State of Our Children and Youth report and The Right to Identity, Culture and Language: A Child's Path to Development (A Statistical Background Report to the Child and Youth Advocate's 3rd Annual State of our Children and Youth Address) released.

Excerpt: "Building Manitoba’s skilled and dynamic workforce, preserving and building on services for families such as health care, education and training, and enhancing public safety highlighted this year’s speech from the throne today during the launch of the fifth session of the 39th legislative assembly."

Excerpt: "...at St. Francis Community School in Regina, Education Minister Donna Harpauer announced the Government of Saskatchewan is providing $885,000 to nine school divisions to implement 18 new Prekindergarten programs in ten communities across the province."

A small percentage (10 to 15%) of typically developing children exhibit stable fear responses and wariness to unfamiliar and familiar stimuli from infancy through childhood. These children are cautious and reticent in social interactions and have been characterized as temperamentally shy and socially withdrawn. In a series of studies over the last 15 years, we have shown that temperamentally shy children display a number of distinct psychophysiological responses at rest and in response to social challenges. These patterns are evidenced across a range of biological measures and contexts, making some of these children vulnerable to anxiety and depression.

On November 10, 2010, The Department of Human Development and Applied Psychology and the Atkinson Centre for Society and Child Development hosted a colloquium featuring Louis Schmidt, PhD, Director, Child Emotion Laboratory, Offord Centre for Child Studies, McMaster University. Dr. Schmidt focussed on the origins, development course and outcomes of this temperamental style. He discussed how work on the phenomenon of temperamental shyness informs basic theory regarding brain‐behaviour relations and practice regarding the management of fearful children within the family and educational settings.

Excerpt: "Quebec's Liberal government has introduced a new bill of law to crack down on illegal daycares mushrooming across the province."

Government announces additional child-care subsidies and 300 child-care spaces.

Robert Fairholm, a director of the Centre for Spatial Economics (CSE), brings his 20 years of experience in economic analysis, modeling and forecasting to quantify the benefits of new public spending on young children revealing some startling findings.