New Resource Helps Caregivers Support Children’s Racial Learning at Every Age

EmbraceRace is excited to release the Ages & Stages Guide: A Caregiver’s Guide to Supporting Children’s Racial Learning.

Drawing on the latest research, the guide highlights how children understand race from infancy through early adolescence.* It offers caregivers practical ways to respond to kids’ questions, model healthy conversations, and build racial belonging over time.

Key features of the guide include:

• A clear overview of racial learning at each stage of childhood
• Tips for talking about race with children in ways that grow with them
• Connections to EmbraceRace’s Color-Brave Caregiver Framework and 12 Practices Action Guides for deeper learning

Children begin noticing and thinking about race earlier than most adults realize. Left to figure it out on their own, they often absorb harmful messages from the wider world. With the right tools, caregivers can nurture racial learning that helps kids see themselves and others with respect, empathy, and confidence.

The Ages & Stages Guide is free and available now on the EmbraceRace website here.

EmbraceRace is deeply grateful to the many researchers and practitioners who contributed to and reviewed this guide. Their expertise in child development, racial identity, and education makes this resource possible. The full acknowledgments appear in the guide itself.

* This guide was created based on the research for 0 to 14 year olds. However, each child's development and context is different and so these suggestions will be helpful when thinking about older kids, too.