Blogs from Wendy Robeson - �ǿ��

Collaboration, Not Competition, is Key for the Future of Early Childhood Policy Research

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:00:45 -0400

This post was co-authored by Wendy Wagner Robeson, Ed.D., Kimberly Lucas, Ph.D., and Kyle DeMeo Cook, Ph.D.As Massachusetts reels from losing millions of federal research dollars, it’s easy for us as research scientists to lose hope. It’s also easy to believe that with dwindling resources, we live in an even more dog-eat-dog world in which we must fight for the remaining grants and awards. But despite the challenges we are facing, we can choose to see this as a season of possibility—full of potential new ways to carry out our work that involve more collaboration, more partnership, and less competition.Of course, researchers have long worked with colleagues and shared their findings with those in their field. But this particular moment—in which scientific research is under attack from the Trump administration—calls for much deeper collaboration: researchers must come together within, across, and even beyond our fields to determine what the real research...

Child Care Tradeoffs, from Compromises to Sacrifices

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 14:48:49 -0400

This post was co-authored by �ǿ�� Senior Research Scientist Wendy Wagner Robeson, Ed.D., and Sarah Savage, a senior policy analyst and advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Their issue brief, Child care tradeoffs among Massachusetts mothers, was published by the Boston Fed in July 2022. Just before the pandemic, we interviewed 67 mothers of young children about their experiences accessing child care. Though they were a diverse group, their problems were similar: They could not find child care. When they could find it, most struggled to afford it. As a result, they were all forced to make tradeoffs in selecting the best care arrangements for their families. These interviews formed the basis of our recent brief, Child care tradeoffs among Massachusetts mothers. Through lengthy, one-on-one conversations, we tried to dig deeper to better understand the tradeoffs parents make to juggle employment with child care. More than half of the...

Child Care in a Pandemic: The "New Normal"

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 14:15:11 -0400

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led Massachusetts (along with many other states) to close all forms of child care, except emergency care. Many parents found themselves working from home and caring for their young children at the same time, muddling through as best they could until child care reopened in summer 2020. When child care became available again, what did parents do—especially given their fears and lack of confidence in the child care system? New health and safety guidelines, including smaller group sizes and other limitations, raised costs and made fewer slots available. Many child care centers and family child care homes closed, and fewer educators were available to care for and educate young children. Thanks to support from �ǿ��’s Harold Benenson Memorial Research Fund, I explored this “new normal” of child care by interviewing 25 Massachusetts families with children under the age of five. I looked at how these...

Developing Babies’ Literacy Skills

Wed, 06 Sep 2017 15:53:54 -0400

Friday, September 8, is International Literacy Day! In my opinion, every day should be called Literacy Day given its critical importance to all. This is especially true for very young children as developing language and pre-literacy skills are paramount to later academic success. Parents, caregivers and other adults can do so much to help young children with these needed skills starting with their birth. Talking with babies before they even can use words helps them learn. Talking and discussing what you are doing while you are doing it, such as diapering, or preparing a bottle can become natural and spontaneous if done often enough. Conversations can happen throughout the day including times of bathing, playing, diapering, or feeding. Adults can talk with the infant and about what s/he sees or about what is happening. When you are outside, talk about what you see as well as what the baby is looking...

Blogs from Wendy Robeson - �ǿ�����

Collaboration, Not Competition, is Key for the Future of Early Childhood Policy Research

Child Care Tradeoffs, from Compromises to Sacrifices

Child Care in a Pandemic: The "New Normal"

Developing Babies’ Literacy Skills

Blogs from Wendy Robeson - �ǿ��