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Erika Christakis

Erika Christakis

New York Times Best-Selling Author of The Importance of Being Little

Erika Christakis is an early childhood educator, New York Times best-selling author of The Importance of Being Little: What Young Children Really Need From Grownups, and member of the National Advisory Board of Defending the Early Years. Formerly on the faculty of the Yale Child Study Center, she has written and consulted widely about child development from preschool through the college years, drawing on her experiences as a teacher, preschool director, and college administrator.

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Bio

Full Bio

Erika Christakis is an early childhood educator, New York Times best-selling author of The Importance of Being Little: What Young Children Really Need From Grownups, and member of the National Advisory Board of Defending the Early Years. A former faculty member of the Yale Child Study Center, she has written widely about child development from preschool through the college years. Erika is an honors graduate of Harvard College, where she majored in anthropology, and holds master’s degrees in public health, communication, and early childhood education. She is a Massachusetts-certified teacher (pre-k through 2nd grade) as well as a licensed preschool director. For two years, she wrote a TIME.com Ideas column and her work has been featured in a number of other venues, including The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, CNN.com, Nightline, Salon, NPR, and the Financial Times. A mother of three grown children, she lives with her husband in New Haven, Connecticut.

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Topics

Topics

The Importance of Being Little: what young children really need from grownups

How to grow a reader: supporting language and literacy in early childhood (without stress and tears)   

Picking a preschool: What does high-quality early education really look like?   

Going off script: The case for creativity in early childhood    The essential connection: supporting healthy emotions in an iPad world

Videos

Videos

Slate School Education Idea Lab: A Conversation about Education with Erika Christakis
The Importance of Being Little by Erika Cristakis - A Book Review

Books

The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups
The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups
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