The First Years Last Forever

Research shows that the crucial groundwork for a person's emotional and intellectual life is set between birth and age three, and parents and caregivers should have access to support services to help babies develop. Designed to help parents and caregivers provide a safe and nurturing experience, yourchild.yahoo.com is part of the I Am Your Child Campaign's efforts to help parents find the right child care environment to encourage their child's healthy development. Through the new Web site, parents can easily access resources, pose questions, obtain answers, and reach experts and information to positively impact and shape their child's life.

New brain research tells us that the first three years of life are a critical period in a child's development. Early experiences help determine the child's brain structure, shaping the way he or she learns, thinks and behaves for the rest of his or her life.

"As an Internet leader, Yahoo!'s goal is to connect people with information and other people, quickly, easily and effectively. Today, Yahoo! reaches and impacts millions of people, including parents and caregivers," said David Filo, chief Yahoo! and co-founder, Yahoo! Inc. "By working with I Am Your Child, we can continue to extend this vision by putting valuable resources at the fingertips of parents and caregivers nationwide. We can empower parents by providing an interactive forum and an online community to help foster healthy and happy early development and connect caregivers with information to help them make a difference in the lives of their children."

"We now know that what parents and caregivers do in the first few years will make a lasting impression on our children. As parents and as a country we need to focus attention on our youngest citizens and on these first critical years, so that we enable our children to grow to be healthy adults and reach their full potential," said I Am Your Child Founder and Chairman Rob Reiner. "The campaign continues to promote the importance of early childhood development. Together with Yahoo! we can increase public awareness by making access to quality resources and information more easily available through yourchild.yahoo.com."

Shaping Our Children's Tomorrow

The site is intuitively designed to enable users easy and quick access to important information about the first three years of life and to help parents make informed child care decisions. Through yourchild.yahoo.com, parents and caregivers can directly access the site's online child care resources. For those without Internet access, these new child care materials as well as other child parenting information are available by calling tollfree 1-888-447-3400. Dedicated to developing the full potential of today's infants and young children, these valuable resources include:

• Choosing Child Care : provides parents with access to targetted information and advice from "Quality Child Care: Making The Right Choice For You & Your Child," a free IAYC brochure made possible by support from Fisher-Price, Inc. With an introductory letter from talk-show host and mom Rosie O'Donnell, the booklet provides information and tips for locating and choosing quality child care.
• Child Care Video : "Making the Right Choice for You & Your Child" hosted by TV correspondent and mom Maria Shriver, is a companion to the brochure and is made possible by support from Toys "R" Us.
• Expert Advice : offers valuable tips and guidance on issues related to early childhood development from leading experts in the field, such as T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., Barbara Bowman, C. Everett Koop, M.D., Sc.D., and Bruce Perry, M.D., Ph.D.
• How To Find Local Child Care : links to a comprehensive, searchable database owned and managed by Child Care Aware, a program of the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies, Inc., helping parents locate quality child care programs and resources in their community.
• Parenting Tips : connects parents and caregivers with relevant Web resources and links to areas such as child care, early development, discipline, health and nutrition to help parents make smart and informed choices.
• Facts & Research : delivers one-click access to key issues on early childhood development, breakthrough research on a baby's brain, and background and advice for parents on the various ages and stages of a child's life.
• Caregiver Discussion Area : offers an online community through message boards, chats and Net events where parents and caregivers can come together to share experiences and exchange information in a comfortable environment.
• Related Web sites : helps our youngest citizens get off to a healthy and happy start by providing tools to help parents foster growth and potential in their children.

Speaking About The Early Years: Special Online Event

People who would like to learn more about this national child care initiative can also chat LIVE with Actor/Director and I Am Your Child Founder Rob Reiner by visiting Yahoo! Chat (http://chat.yahoo.com). Beginning at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET on May 28, 1998, Reiner will discuss the I Am Your Child Campaign, its focus on early childhood development and the importance of the first three years of life, as well as the new online resource.

About The I Am Your Child Campaign

I Am Your Child is a national public awareness and engagement campaign to make early childhood development a top priority for our nation. Since its spring launch in 1997, I Am Your Child, has educated millions of parents and professionals about breakthrough new discoveries in the process of brain development. These findings reveal that the first three years of a child's life are more important for emotional and intellectual growth than previously thought. Through mass media including the Internet, community mobilization, public education and policy outreach, parents and caregivers across the U.S. and around the world are learning how to make a difference in the lives of young children. I Am Your Child Founders include Rob Reiner, Michele Singer Reiner, and Ellen Gilbert of International Creative Management, as well as a broad range of experts from the early childhood fields.

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is a global Internet media company that offers a network of branded Web programming serving millions of users daily. As the first online navigational guide to the Web, www.yahoo.com is the single largest guide in terms of traffic, advertising, household and business user reach, and is one of the most recognized brands associated with the Internet. Yahoo! Inc. provides targeted Internet resources and communications services for a broad range of audiences, based on demographic, key-subject and geographic interests. Yahoo! is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif.