Joseph Sparling, Ph.D., an early childhood educator and former teacher and principal, is the first author of LearningGames^®, The Abecedarian Curriculum, Partners for Learning, and Conversation Books, educational resources that have been used widely in the United States and abroad. He is a Fellow of the Frank Porter Child Development Institute of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a Research Professor at Georgetown University. In addition to his work in the United States, Dr. Sparling has developed curriculum and provided training and intervention services for orphanages in Romania.

Kimberly Sparling is the President of MindNurture, Inc. She has co-authored several early childhood education products and has provided early childhood consulting and training services to numerous organizations and school systems. Kimberly holds a Master of Business Administration degree and has completed two additional years of graduate work in Applied Developmental Psychology. Her thesis work was on the early identification of gifted minorities.