Tag Archives: Infants

Office of Head Start Upcoming Events

Posted on by

Explore and register for upcoming T/TA events, sorted by topic. Scroll down for General Interest; Education & Child Development; Family & Community Engagement; Financial & Program Management; Health & Social and Emotional Well-being; Partnerships in Education & Child Care; and Non-ACF Events in the Early Childhood Field.

To see events sorted by date, visit the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC).

 

General Interest

Monday, March 12
4–4:45 p.m. ET
Online

MyPeers Orientation

Join this webinar for a 45-minute introduction to MyPeers, a community of practice forum for Head Start programs, staff, and partners. MyPeers is a virtual space for brainstorming, exchanging ideas, and sharing resources. Local program staff across the country can connect with and lend support to fellow early childhood colleagues.

Webinar Repeats (all ET): March 19 at 1 p.m.; April 12 at 2 p.m.; April 23 at 3 p.m.; May 8 at noon.; May 16 at 2 p.m.

Education & Child Development

Wednesday, March 7
3–4 p.m. ET
Online

Spotlights on Innovative Practices: Relationship-Based Competencies for Professionals Who Work with Young Children

This is a live repeat of the December webinar which introduced the updated resource Relationship-Based Competencies for Professionals Who Work with Young Children in Group Settings.

Divider

Tuesday, March 13
3–4 p.m. ET
Online

BabyTalks Series: Supporting Children’s Early Brain Development

For very young children, almost every experience is an opportunity for learning. Explore how children’s brains develop in the first few years of life.

Divider

Friday, March 16
3–4 p.m. ET
Online

Preschool Cognition: Supporting Early Math

Join this Teacher Time webisode to hear from experts about early math development. Learn how to integrate early geometry concepts and skills, like shapes and puzzles, into everyday teaching practices.

Divider

Tuesday, March 20
3–4 p.m. ET
Online

New and Revised: Making It Work – Implementing Cultural Learning Experiences in AIAN Early Learning Settings

Discover the importance of infusing language and culture in early learning programs. Hear about the newly updated Making It Work, a guide for implementing cultural learning experiences in American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) programs.

Divider

Family & Community Engagement

Thursday, March 29
3–4:15 p.m. ET
Online

Helping Families Prepare for Income Changes Throughout the Year

Nearly two-thirds of low-income families go through significant changes in household income during the year. Head Start and Early Head Start programs can play a key role in helping families develop a plan to handle sudden income changes. This webinar is part of the Building Foundations for Economic Mobility (BFEM) webinar series.

Divider

Financial & Program Management

Thursday, March 8
3–4 p.m. ET
Online

Program Planning and Data & Evaluation

This session will give an overview of the Program Planning and Data and Evaluation sections of the Head Start Management Systems Wheel. Topics will include coordinated approaches and how data supports continuous improvement.

Divider

Wednesday, March 28
3–4:30 p.m. ET
Online

Successful, Supportive Relationships with State Early Childhood Systems

Explore both grantee and state perspectives on building relationships that support access to the Child Care and Development Fund subsidy. Hear from state representatives and two Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership grantees, one rural and one urban, about the benefits of these relationships and what steps they took in building them. This webinar is part of the “Making Strides” series.

Divider

Thursday, April 12
3–4 p.m. ET
Online

Facilities and Learning Environments

This session continues the exploration of the Head Start Management Systems Wheel. Review key considerations in facilities management. This includes an overview of the facility development and renovation cycle, as well as the health and wellness implications in facility management.

Divider

Thursday, May 10
3–4 p.m. ET
Online

Transportation and Technology

This Head Start Management Systems Wheel session will address the fundamental concepts that support the systems of Transportation and Technology and Information Systems. This will include transportation planning, ensuring child safety, and the role of internal staff and external consultants in supporting your computers and software.

Divider

Health & Social and Emotional Well-being

Monday, March 5
2–3 p.m. ET
Online

Tummy Time: A Simple Concept with Enormous Benefits

Tummy time gives babies a chance to stretch and strengthen their muscles, which helps them push up, roll over, crawl, and walk. Join this webinar to explore a new suite of materials for home visitors and other professionals working with families with infants. Learn to encourage and incorporate tummy time into families’ routines. Help caregivers use tummy time as a special chance to bond and interact with babies.

Divider

Tuesday, March 6
1–2 p.m. ET
Online

Implementing Evidence-Based Hearing Screening Practices for Children 3 to 5 Years of Age in Head Start Programs

Learn about evidence-based hearing screening for children 3–5 years of age. Explore newly released instructional resources designed to assist those using Pure Tone screening.

Divider

Thursday, March 15
2–3 p.m. ET
Online

Nutrition Education in the Classroom

Nutrition is key for children’s healthy development, but it can be challenging to make it a part of your daily routine. Explore tips and strategies to create healthier eating environments for children in the classroom and at home.

Divider

April 10–12
All Day
Dallas, TX

I Am Moving, I Am Learning Team Trainings

I Am Moving, I Am Learning (IMIL) is a Head Start program enhancement created to address childhood obesity. It was not designed as a curriculum or an add-on. Join the team training to find out how IMIL fits seamlessly into what programs are already doing to meet the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework. Apply online by March 9, 2018.

Divider

Partnerships in Education & Child Care

Tuesday, March 6
2–3:30 p.m. ET
Online

Strategies for Building and Financing the Supply of High Quality Early Learning Webinar Series: State and Local Finance Strategies

The National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance, in collaboration with the BUILD initiative, will facilitate a discussion about state and local revenue-generation strategies that fund quality services for children.

Divider

Tuesday, May 1
2–3:30 p.m. ET
Online

Strategies for Building and Financing the Supply of High Quality Early Learning: Utilizing Grants and Contracts, Payment Rates, and Financial Incentives to Increase Supply and Improve Quality

Hear from states that have used different strategies related to provider payments, grants and contracts, and financial incentives.

May 30 – June 1
All Day
Washington, DC

Research and Evaluation Conference on Self-Sufficiency (RECS)

Explore the latest findings from evaluations or programs, policies, and services that support low-income and vulnerable families on the path to economic self-sufficiency. RECS is presented by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Non-ACF Events in the Early Childhood Field

March 2–6
All Day
Costa Mesa, CA

April 4–6
All Day
Online

Divider

April 17–20
All Day
Washington, DC

Divider

April 23–27
All Day
Anaheim, CA

First Year of Life Poses Highest Risk for Child Abuse

Posted on by

11/24/2015

The risk of serious physical abuse is highest among infants under the age of 1, a new study shows.

Researchers looked at nearly 15,000 children younger than 16 who were treated for severe injuries at hospitals in England and Wales between 2004 and 2013. Of those injuries, 92 percent were accidental, 2.5 percent were the result of fights and 5 percent were caused by abuse.

Among children with abuse-related injuries, 98 percent were younger than 5, and 76 percent were less than a year old. Abuse-related injuries were more severe and more likely to involve the head/brain than accidental injuries.

Abused children were also three times more likely to die of their injuries than other children in the study, 7.6 percent vs. 2.6 percent.

Boys accounted for 59 percent of abuse victims and 89 percent of those treated for injuries caused by fights or accidents, according to the study published online Nov. 23 in the Emergency Medicine Journal.

While young children accounted for the vast majority of abuse victims in this study, it doesn’t meant that older children don’t suffer abuse, noted the researchers led by Dr. Ffion Davies, an emergency medicine consultant from University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust in England.

“It may simply be that the more robust physique of an older child means that major trauma is more difficult to inflict,” the researchers suggested.

Source: HealthDay News

Available at: http://consumer.healthday.com/public-health-information-30/domestic-violence-news-207/infants-under-1-at-highest-risk-for-physical-abuse-study-705494.html

Citing multiple deaths, study calls for banning crib bumpers

Posted on by

11/23/2015

For nearly eight years, a Washington University School of Medicine physician has been trying to alert parents, consumers and regulators to the danger of infant suffocation and injury from crib bumpers.

That alarm first came after his 2007 study attributing 27 deaths to crib bumpers from 1985 through 2005.

Yet, despite repeated statements from the American Academy of Pediatrics advising against their use, the demand for crib bumpers remains high, as does the overall public perception they are safe.

Indeed, the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association continues to maintain in its formal platform that the organization does “not know of any infant deaths directly attributed to crib bumpers.”

Source: St. Louis Post Dispatch

Avaiilable at: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/citing-multiple-deaths-study-calls-for-banning-crib-bumpers/article_786694df-d048-5fc3-9472-98f50261b1b0.html

TANF and the First Year of Life: Making a Difference at a Pivotal Moment

Posted on by

10/2/2015

Americans overwhelmingly agree that children’s fate in life should not be determined by the circumstances in which they are born. But children born into poor families are at great risk of persistent poverty during their childhood, and long-term negative effects on their health, economic success, and overall well-being. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) offers an important, large-scale, high-impact opportunity to achieve two-generational goals for parents and infants. However, state TANF programs often fall short of their potential.  Barriers to access, underfunded services, and work requirements that do not take the needs of infants into account hold parents back and make it harder for them to lift themselves and their infants out of poverty. This report suggests a new framework for thinking about TANF in the context of the first year of life, a vision for what a reformed TANF might look like and concrete steps that states can begin taking right now to move their programs in this direction.

Source: CLASP

Available at: http://www.clasp.org/resources-and-publications/tanf-and-the-first-year-of-life-making-a-difference-at-a-pivotal-moment

Often and early gives children a taste for vegetables

Posted on by

5/30/14

Exposing infants to a new vegetable early in life encourages them to eat more of it compared to offering novel vegetables to older children, new research from the University of Leeds suggests.

The researchers, led by Professor Marion Hetherington in the Institute of Psychological Sciences, also found that even fussy eaters are able to eat a bit more of a new vegetable each time they are offered it.

The research, involving babies and children from the UK, France and Denmark, also dispelled the popular myth that vegetable tastes need to be masked or given by stealth in order for children to eat them.

Source: Science Daily

Available at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140530190550.htm

Beyond Bottles and Baby Food: Setting the Nutritional Foundation for Lifelong Wellness – Head Start

Posted on by

8/2013

This webinar explores important information related to nutrition and feeding for infants and very young children, their families, caregivers, and communities. It was developed as part of the Little Voices for Healthy Choices Initiative. The webinar features Paula Mydlenski, a registered dietician, and teaching artists from Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts.

Source: Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center

Available at: http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/ehsnrc/Early%20Head%20Start/multimedia/webinars/BeyondBottlesan.htm?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Content%20E-blast%20for%20July&utm_content=New%20Content%20E-blast%20for%20July+CID_30ee5ad9937c9730611342af4be147d8&utm_source=CM%20Eblast&utm_term=Beyond%20Bottles%20and%20Baby%20Food%20Setting%20the%20Nutritional%20Foundation%20for%20Lifelong%20Wellness

World Breastfeeding Week 2013

Posted on by

8/1 – 8/7/2013

This year’s World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) theme, ‘BREASTFEEDING SUPPORT: CLOSE TO MOTHERS’, highlights Breastfeeding Peer Counselling. Even when mothers are able to get off to a good start, all too often in the weeks or months after delivery there is a sharp decline in breastfeeding rates, and practices, particularly exclusive breastfeeding. The period when mothers do not visit a healthcare facility is the time when a community support system for mothers is essential. Continued support to sustain breastfeeding can be provided in a variety of ways. Traditionally, support is provided by the family. As societies change, however, in particular with urbanization, support for mothers from a wider circle is needed, whether it is provided by trained health workers, lactation consultants, community leaders, or from friends who are also mothers, and/or from fathers/partners.

The Peer Counselling Program is a cost effective and highly productive way to reach a larger number of mothers more frequently. Peer Counsellors can be anyone from the community who is trained to learn to support mothers. Trained Peer Counsellors, readily available in the community become the lifeline for mothers with breastfeeding questions and issues. “The key to best breastfeeding practices is continued day-to-day support for the breastfeeding mother within her home and community.”

Source: World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action

Available at: http://worldbreastfeedingweek.org/index.shtml

Virtual Baby Rally » Learning Happens From The Start

Posted on by

The date for The Virtual Baby Rally will be:
July 8, 2013, 2:00 – 2:30PM (EST)

Event Host:
Soledad O’Brien, Award winning journalist and CEO of Starfish Media Group

Featured Guests:
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Secretary Arne Duncan, U.S. Department of Education

Jennifer Garner, Actor and Save the Children Artist Ambassador

Alma Powell, Chair of the Board at America’s Promise Alliance

Laurie Berkner, Children’s Musician

ZERO TO THREE, with more than a dozen co-sponsoring organizations, is hosting Rally4Babies: Learning Happens Right from the Start to rally Americans around early learning policies that focus specifically on babies and toddlers.

The virtual baby rally will be streamed live on YouTube using Google+ Hangouts on Air, and will feature prominent speakers in a live program about why we need our early learning policies to begin at birth. You can participate in the rally from wherever you are by accessing YouTube. The recording of the Virtual Baby Rally will be available after the live event for people who could not participate live. Check this page often for updates!

Source: Rally for Babies

Available at: http://rally4babies.org/virtual-rally/

Not Just the Baby Blues: Screening Can Help Address Postpartum Depression | Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ)

Posted on by

6/11/2013

If you know someone who’s expecting a baby this summer, you have plenty of company. More babies are born in July, August, and September than in any other months of the year, according to 2010 Federal data [PDF File, Plugin Software Help].

A new baby brings joy and excitement. But for some women, it can also bring on the start of serious depression. Known as postpartum depression, this condition often starts shortly after a woman gives birth, but it can also begin up to a year later.

Signs of postpartum depression are similar to the symptoms of major depression. They include—

  • Feeling sad or depressed most of the time.
  • Having no interest in doing things a person used to enjoy.
  • Losing or gaining a lot of weight in a short time.
  • Being unable to sleep or sleeping too much.
  • Feeling guilty or worthless.
  • Thinking about death or suicide.

Major depression in women who have given birth in the previous year affects between 1 and 6 percent of the population. In the first 3 months after giving birth, the incidence is higher than 6 percent.

Source: Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ)

Available at: http://www.ahrq.gov/news/columns/navigating-the-health-care-system/061113.html

EHS Tip Sheet No. 51 What Does the Two-Week Newborn Home Visit Address? – Head Start

Posted on by

6/2013

Having a newborn can be tough. The two-week visit is an important check-in for staff and families. This Tip Sheet describes the content of that visit.

Response:

The first few weeks of a baby’s life are an exciting and demanding time for the baby and the family. The two-week newborn visit required by the Head Start Program Performance Standards focuses on the “well-being of both the mother and the child.” This visit does not take the place of well-baby checks. It also does not replace medical care for the mother. Instead, at the two-week newborn visit, staff

  • supplement those medical appointments,
  • address families’ questions,
  • evaluate the health of babies and mothers, and
  • offer resources and referrals as necessary.

Source: Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center

Available at: https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/ehsnrc/Early%20Head%20Start/early-learning/assessment/WhatDoestheTwo.htm