Ray Marks, EdD¹, Elaine Sheehan, M Ed², Amy Grimm, MPH², Jeanne Chun, MA², and John P. Allegrante, PhD³. (1) Department of Health and Behavior Studies, Columbia University, Teachers College, 525 West 120th Street, Box 114, New York, NY 10027, 212-870-8764, rm226@columbia.edu, (2) National Center for Health Education, 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014, (3) Department of Health and Behavior Studies, Columbia University, Teachers College, 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027

Background: The prevention of chronic disease should begin at the earliest stage of a child's life. A growing body of cumulative research shows that well-designed comprehensive school health education initiated in early childhood is likely to provide a foundation for reducing the chronic disease burden of adulthood.

Objective: This presentation will describe the development of Starting Healthy, a comprehensive preschool health education curriculum that has been developed by the National Center for Health Educaiton. Starting Healthy builds on the Growing Healthy, a K-6 grade comprehensive school health education curriculum program that has been implemented in over 40 states in the U.S. Starting Healthy consists of 74 developmentally-appropriate lessons that have been divided into 8 subcategories.

The presentation will describe how the curriculum can be used by teachers, parents, and other caregivers to integrate health education into the preschool classroom, day-care programs, and other early childhood settings in which preschool children receive care and education. Examples of the goals and objectives of lesson plans, content, and teaching/learning activities will be demonstrated and discussed. The relationship of the curriculum to state educational standards and the national No Child Left Behind Act, as well as how parental involement can be fostered in the delivery of the curriculum, will also be described.

This work was supported, in part, by the MetLife Foundation.

Learning Objectives: