What You Need to Know About Vroom
Even if you are familiar with Vroom Tips already, understanding Vroom as a program will help you adapt Vroom Content effectively. When we grant licenses to adapt Vroom Content, we need to ensure consistency with the program’s values and approach.
The Vroom Story starts with the Bezos Family Foundation.
Vroom is a nonprofit program of the Bezos Family Foundation. Over nearly two decades, the Bezos Family Foundation has been making grants supporting scientific research with the aim of fueling the science of learning and enabling its application in a variety of settings. We champion the science of learning—and support the critical relationships that help learning happen using the latest research as our north star. This research laid the groundwork for the science behind Vroom.
Vroom was designed to support Caregivers
The Bezos Family Foundation looked for positive, empowering resources that could support caregivers every day. There were many resources available, but few seemed to prioritize sharing the science of early learning and brain development in ways that complemented the everyday lives of caregivers, rather than adding one more thing to their already busy lives. We wanted families to have the latest science at their fingertips in a way that was fun, easy, and relevant.
In 2012, we worked with IDEO.org and dug deeper into the lives of parents and caregivers. Our goal was to design realistic ways for low-income parents to support their children’s development in the context of their busy and often stressful lives. And so Vroom was born!
"Instead of focusing on getting each parent to spend an hour reading aloud from the latest Curious George book, a suggestion that seemed out-of-touch and burdensome to parents we met, our team asked: How can we move beyond reading to catalyze the kind of engagement kids need to build their brains? How can mealtime, bus stops, and running errands join storytime as an intentional moment of learning?"
-Redefining Parent-Child Engagement, IDEO.org
Empowering Parents and Caregivers with Vroom
Vroom empowers parents and caregivers to be proactive in their children’s early learning and development.
We do this by turning shared, everyday moments into “Brain Building Moments™”. A Brain Building Moment is an opportunity for a parent or caregiver to turn a common everyday activity, maybe a routine or chore, into something fun and easy that supports their child’s learning. Parents are already busy and sometimes overwhelmed. Boosting learning and growth doesn’t require extra of time, money or more stuff. Little changes in how we spend our time with children can have a big impact on their growing brains. Brain Building Moments are all around us!
Why brain building with your child matters so much
Babies are born ready to learn. Your child's brain grows the fastest from birth through age 5! Helping them learn now gets them ready for school, friends, an...
The things that matter most for brain development—like talking and playing—don’t require more money, time or stuff.
Rooted in Science
Vroom is deeply rooted in the science of early childhood brain development.
As a program, Vroom remains consistent with what the latest in brain science tells us. To adapt Vroom, you don’t have to be a neuroscientist or expert, though. You just need to be able to distinguish the critical science-based elements of a Vroom Tip. We’ll dive into this later in the Toolkit, and you can visit our Behind the Research page for more on the science behind Vroom.
Vroom Content and Tools are free.
Vroom Content is free for parents and caregivers, as well as content users like you. However, if you choose to use Vroom Content, it should always be freely available and never part of a paid service or product, or otherwise used in a commercial manner. We aim to address systemic inequities by partnering with the people and communities most in need.
Beyond the Brain
While other skills or milestones can align with Vroom Content, things like fine or gross motor skills are not generally related to the early childhood brain development that Vroom focuses on.
