Talking to Kids About Race empowers parents, childcare providers, and educators of young children with an understanding of racial attitudes in early childhood development and techniques for talking to kids about race through a research-based, comprehensive workshop.

Recently featured on Michigan Radio's Seeking Change broadcast, Program Director, Sarah Salguera speaks to the importance engaging young kids. listen now...

Children begin the development of racial attitudes at a very young age. Research shows that as early as six months, babies are beginning to sort out differences in skin color. Studies have proven the most effective strategy to foster development of non-biased attitudes toward racial difference is for parents and childcare providers to openly bring up issues of race with children.

Visit our report archive to view this program's yearly outcome reports as well as agency-wide annual reports.
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Workshop Materials
Every workshop participant is provided with a booklet containing age-appropriate information, activities, and talking points. 

In addition, we have identified best practice materials such as puppets, Everywhere Babies by 
  • Susan Meyers, and skin tone crayon packs for purchase
    • .

    Client List
    Through the clients below, this program has reached an over 50 schools, child care centers, in-home locations:

    Adoptive Family Support Network; Aquinas College; Calhoun County Intermediate School District; Challenge of Children; First Steps; Imagination Station; Kent County Great Start Parent Coalition; Kent Regional 4Cs; Holland Public Schools; Lakeshore Little People's Place; Ludington Public Schools; Pathways, MI; Ready for School; and White Lake Area Community Education

    Our workshop fulfills the Cultural Competency requirement for childcare providers in the Great Start to Quality system. learn more...


    Additional Research

    Children begin the development of racial attitudes at a very young age. Research shows that as early as six months, babies are beginning to sort out differences in skin color.[1] By age three, they begin to show racial preferences. In one study, 3-year-olds were shown a set of photographs of children and asked with whom they would like to play. Eighty-six percent of white children picked a white playmate, while only 32% of black children chose a black playmate[2]. The study demonstrates that at this early age, children have already internalized biased messages that white people are better than people of color. 

    Studies have proven the most effective strategy to foster development of non-biased attitudes toward racial difference is for parents and childcare providers to openly bring up issues of race with children.[3] A study at the University of Texas in Austin showed that parents who talked with their children specifically about race while watching multicultural themed videos resulted in an improvement in their children’s racial attitudes. Children who only watched the videos without the accompanying parental discussion showed no improvement.

    However, adults are often very uncomfortable to bring up race issues[4]. In one study on children under age six, Dr. Phyllis Katz reflected on parental attitudes, saying, “Even though they were participating in a study about children’s understanding of race, many White parents preferred to believe that talking about race would cause their children to see racial differences that they hadn’t noticed before, and many Black parents simply thought that their children were too young at that point to talk about race.” It is clear that parents and childcare providers need additional training and tools to help them gain comfort in talking about race with young children.

    ● American Psychologist, "Racists or Tolerant Multiculturalists? How Do They Begin?" by Phylis Katz
    ● Exploring the Influences of Educational Television and Parent-Child by Birgitte Vittrup Simpson
    ● Newsweek, "See Baby Discriminate" by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
    ● New York Times, "The Danger of Not Talking to Your Children About Race" by KJ Dell'Antonia

    [1] Katz, Phylis. “Racists or Tolerant Multiculturalists? How Do They Begin?” American Psychologist, Vol 58(11), Nov 2003, pg. 897-909.
    [2]     Ibid.
    [3]     Vittrup, Birgitte. “Exploring the Influences of Educational Television and Parent-Child Discussions on Improving Children’s Racial Attitudes.” Ph.D. dissertation. University of Texas Austin. 2007.
    [4]     Tatum, Beverly. Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria. Basic Books. 1997. pg 36