Kentucky has reported that only 30% of children attending kindergarten in Cumberland county are prepared and equipped to succeed. In many Kentucky counties, limited resources or the environment may hinder healthy lifestyle choices related to early childhood development and physical activity.  

As an innovative strategy to improve early childhood development skills and increase kindergarten readiness with Cumberland County residents, the Family and Consumer Sciences Agent implemented Learning With Littles Club for families with preschool children.  

Through this program, participants work on improving early childhood development skills and increasing kindergarten readiness. 29 adults and 34 children participated in this program. As a result of this program, 95 % of parents reported reading to their child(ren) at least three times a week, 90 % of parents or caregivers reported using simple rules and routines in their home, 100% of participant’s parents or caregivers encouraged their child to continue in tasks that were challenging. In addition to individual behavior change 100% reported their family conducted activities learned from Laugh and Learn Playdates at home.  

At the completion of the program, participants shared "attention span to on task has increased," "following simple directions has improved," "she can identify many more letters and is more focused while working on a task," "he is talking and communicating his needs better," and "the Learning With Littles lessons have made it easy to take time out of busy everyday life to learn with my son. Encouraging me to take time to learn with him and teach him has been very beneficial to both him and me."