Talk, Read and Sing Together Every Day! Tips For Infant & Toddler Teachers and Caregivers

 

This resource from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shares the importance of a language-rich environment for infants and toddlers, along with some practical tips and activities broken into the categories of “Talk”, “Read” and “Sing”.

Link to resource

Drawing Differences Introduction: We Look Closely

 

This introduction to the Drawing Differences arts program for kids (and their adults!) features arts educator Paula Liz. You will never look at a tree the same again once you watch this!

Talking With Parents When Concerns Arise

 

The sooner concerns about a child’s development or behavior are identified, the better the chance of providing effective help that may be important to the child’s future development. You, as a childcare educator, are in a unique position to work with families to identify concerns and take advantage of the opportunity to access services and supports early.

Link to resource

Early Identification: Key Components

This graphic organizer illustrates the key components of early identification. It also encourages families and service providers to understand the importance of becoming familiar with early identification and developmental screening.

Link to
resource

Early Start Referral Guide

 

Early Start is a statewide interagency system of coordinated early intervention services for infants and toddlers with or at risk for disabilities or developmental delay and their families.

Link to resource

Early Start Information Packet

This packet is for parents and other caregivers of infants and toddlers who may have, or are known to have, developmental delays or disabilities. Professionals and others can use this information to help support families and their young children. 

Link to resource

Gratitude Body Scan for Sleep

 

“Drift off with a sense of gratitude and appreciation for your body”

Link to resource

Involved and Engaged Families: Families are Part of the Program

 Connecting with families reflects the many ways that caregivers/teachers partner hand-in-hand with families and their infants, toddlers, and/or preschool-age children. When providers and families work together to share information, plan together, and support the child’s abilities, needs, interests and progress, children are more likely to succeed in school and in life. Check out these tips for involving and engaging with the families of young children in your care.

Link to resource

NAEYC: The Reading Chair Fall 2023

 

In this edition of the Reading Chair, NAEYC features books that nourish a sense of discovery and adventure in young children ages 2-7.

Link to resource

How to Help Kids Who Are Too Hard on Themselves

Learn more about self-talk and how to bolster those children who tend to talk themselves down, along with when it is time to ask for help. 

Link to resource

How to Support a Friend With Mental Health Challenges

 This article is written for older youth and teens, sharing ways that they can help their friends who are struggling with their mental health and when to get adults involved. While it is directed to adolescents, it has some tips that adults can use when working with children who are having mental health challenges. 

Link to resource

Parents, Grandparents, and Caregivers

Check out these resources and strategies to help parents, grandparents, friends, and neighbors caring for young children with topics like big emotions, challenging behaviors, friendships, early intervention, communicating with families, and more in English, Spanish, Hmong and Somali. 

Link to resource

50 Best Stem Projects for Middle School That Encourage Creativity

 Learn more about the 5 essentials of Middle School STEM projects, along with a detailed list of 50 activities broken into the themes of science, technology, engineering, math, interactive learning, outdoor laboratories, technology enhanced playgrounds and innovative equipment.  

Link to resource

11 Library Card Perks You’ve Never Heard Of

Check out these little-known library card perks that go beyond borrowing books. From language learning software to maker spaces and more, there is so much that the library offers to both children and adults!

Link to resource

Teen Suicides: What Are the Risk Factors?

Learn more about the protective factors against teen suicide, along with key risk factors and signs of suicide to watch for in adolescents. 

Link to resource

What is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal law passed in 1990. It protects the civil rights of persons with disabilities.  The ADA is important to early care and education because it applies to children with disabilities and their early care and education needs.

Link to Resource

Nonverbal Learning Disorder

Nonverbal learning disorder, or NLD, is a neurologically based developmental disability. Currently, there are no known causes. As a learning disorder, it often involves strong verbal skills that do not translate into abstract reasoning.

Link to Resource 

Living with a Disability: The Family Perspective

Families of young children with special needs face unique challenges when looking for childcare. By learning the family perspective, early childhood educators can demonstrate an increased level of empathy and sensitivity about the impact of a child’s disability on parents/family members.

Link to Resource 

How Does the ADA Relate to Child Care?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal civil rights law that protects people with disabilities from discrimination. Child care is considered a public accommodation under the ADA and so must comply with the civil right mandates of access and non-discriminatory policies and practices for children and their families. So what does this mean for your child care program?

Link to Resource 

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

Of all the substances of abuse that women may use during pregnancy, alcohol has the most serious, long-lasting effects. These effects may include physical, mental, behavioral, and/or learning disabilities with possible lifelong implications. 

 Link to Resource

Factors That Influence Behavior

There are many factors that can affect a child’s behavior. Some are internal factors that might have a neurological base. Others are external factors, which are part of a child’s environment, either at home or in the early childhood setting.

Link to Resource

Mindset Hacks That Will Change Your Life

"Having and developing a positive mindset increases your ability to handle the certain stressful and unplanned situations in life, it carves you into a resilient survivor. We are shaped by our thoughts, we become what we think and processing these mindset hacks will change your life and drastically improve your optimistic perception."

Link to Resource

How Children Process Grief and Loss Through Play

 

Young children will likely process the tumultuous events of 2020 in the only way they know how—through play. Here’s how adults can be supportive.

Link to Resource

Mindful Breathing Activities for Kids & Teens

 

Mindful breathing is a technique that can help improve focus and restore calm into the classroom.  Best of all, it’s a strategy that helps develop self-regulation skills, something that kids and teens need throughout their lives.

Link to Resource

Teach Social-Emotional Responsibility to Tweens & Teens

 

This resource offers virtual tools to help reach tweens and teens learn about themselves and others, as well as how to navigate meeting their own goals.

Link to Resource

Teen Girls Are Not Alright. ADHD Magnifies the Crisis

 

Rates of sexual violence, suicidality, and sadness have hit a record high among teen girls, according to an alarming new CDC report. Those risks are further elevated for girls with ADHD. Here, experts explore the findings and explain how parents can help girls in crisis.

Link to Resource

How to Talk to Teens About Cyberbullying

 

New research finds that nearly half of teens have been bullied online.  This video shares recommendations to parents when their child first joins social media.

5 Tips to Elevate Your PowerPoint Presentations

 

Are your PowerPoint presentations falling flat? Do you want to create slides that captivate your audience and leave a lasting impression? Get ready to unleash the power of visuals and create impactful presentations that engage and inspire your audience.

Link to Resource

6 PowerPoint Superpowers

 

In this blog, we'll uncover six superpowers of mastering the art of PowerPoint, and how they can transform your presentations from drab to fab!

Link to Resource

Manifest Your Dream Life with These Vision Board Ideas

"In this article, we'll look at how visualization can take the positive effects of goal setting to the next level. We'll also cover vision board ideas to help jumpstart the process."

Link to resource

30 Positive Affirmations to Add to your Mental Strength Workout

Positive affirmations can help support your efforts to change your behavior, build your confidence, and achieve your goals - both personal and professional. Let's explore affirmations and how they work, plus 30 positive affirmations to help get you started. 

Link to resource

Tip Sheets: Active Supervision Outside

 

Active supervision involves watching, listening, interacting, monitoring, and preventing. It also includes recognizing and acting on risks.

Link to resource

What To Do About Increasing Dysregulation in The Early Grades

 

Conflict at school is a normal part of learning how to interact with others—and early-grade teachers have always had to manage misbehavior in class. But not at the levels they’re seeing now.

Link to resource

The Wonder of Repetition in Childhood Development

 Do you ever wonder why young children love to repeat things over and over, whether it is a favorite book or the same games? Learn why researchers say repetition is key to childhood learning in this 3-minute podcast episode with NPR's Rhitu Chatterjee.

Link to resource

Guide To Appreciative Inquiry

 

Appreciative Inquiry is the study and exploration of what gives life to human systems when they function at their best.  As a complete process, Appreciative Inquiry involves engaging participants (from a small group to many hundreds) in a four-phase process.

Link to resource

What Is Auditory Processing Disorder? Symptoms, Comorbidities, and Exercises

Learn more about Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) in children, along with some strategies, exercises and accommodations to help children who have APD.

Link to resource

The Power of Inclusion: What to Expect When Your Preschooler Attends an Inclusive Preschool Program

 

An inclusive preschool serves children with and without disabilities in the same space. There are some important components to know about your child being in an inclusive setting.

Link to Resource

Creating Inclusive Environments and Learning Experiences for Infants and Toddlers

 

Creating a truly inclusive environment means not only making appropriate adaptations to the physical space and materials but also fostering the social and emotional environment.

Link to Resource

Inclusion Planning Checklist: Center-Based Early Care and Education Programs

 

This checklist is a tool for providing collaborative services when including infants or toddlers with significant disabilities and their families in center-based early care and education programs. The checklist provides suggestions for activities that should take place to create responsive and effective inclusive environments; it is divided into four sections: 1) Build Relationships, 2) Gather and Share Information and Resources, 3) Develop and Implement Plans, and 4) Review and Evaluate Services

Link to Resource

Adapting the Child Care Environment for Children with Special Needs

 

Many of the adaptations that you make to your childcare program will be simple. Often, the modifications will also benefit the other children in your childcare program.

Link to Resource

How to Create Inclusive Classrooms for Preschoolers with Special Needs

 

When teaching preschool, you have a classroom full of children with a diverse set of needs, and it is your job to find ways to ensure inclusion for all these children. An inclusive preschool classroom ensures that all children, regardless of their abilities, have access to individualized learning experiences that are adapted to meet the needs of all children in the class.

Link to Resource

Rocking and Rolling: Promoting Inclusion in Inclusion in Infant and Toddler Settings

 

While inclusion is an important goal for many families and teachers and is a hallmark of a high-quality early learning program effective implementation requires planning, intentionality, and collaboration.

Link to Resource

Preschool Inclusion Program

 

This video resource offers a look into the Anaheim Elementary inclusion preschool program.

Meaningful Inclusion in Early Childhood

 

How can a school meaningfully include students with disabilities in an early childhood program? In moving interviews, parents in this video reveal the benefits for their children. Educators describe what they do and how they got there.   These stories come from the Sun Prairie Area School District, where inclusion is the norm for all early childhood programs supported by public dollars, whether offered in community or district settings.

Nature Helps Children Recover from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

 

Time in nature can be a powerful antidote to the negative impacts of trauma and stress in children’s lives. When family service providers incorporate nature into their work, children and families experience a wide range of benefits, including improved mental and physical health, stronger relationships, better communication, reduced stress, and healing from trauma.

Link to Resource

ADHD and Exercise

 

Studies show that even half an hour a day can help kids function better and feel better.

Link to Resource

How To Help Kids Learn to Fail

 

Only through trial and error can children become resilient adults.

Link to Resource

Supporting the Emotional Needs of Kids with Learning Disabilities

 

Signs your child might be struggling with low self-esteem, anxiety, or depression, and how to help.

Link to Resource

Sports For Kids with Learning and Emotional Challenges

 

Although children with mental health and learning differences may face certain challenges, sports offer wonderful opportunities for self-esteem building. Recognizing their achievements in sports can boost their confidence and provide a sense of accomplishment.

Link to Resource

Letter For Your Future Self

 

This is a 10-minute activity where participants imagine their lives in the future and write a letter to themselves. It challenges growth by asking them to think about the ways their current habits connect to their future goals. Participants consider changes they might want to make to live up to their own expectations.

Link to Resource

The Grandma Mary Story Series: Where I Learned the Art of Delegation

Barb Vlope, M.ED, shares leadership lessons on the art of delegation she learned from her Grandma Mary as a child, including actionable steps and tips for successfully delegating to others.  

Link to resource

Listening to understand: How to practice active listening (with examples)

"In this article, we'll walk you through the different types of listening and show you how active listening can help you listen to understand - not just respond." 

Link to resource

Community Investment Collaborative for Kids Resource Guide: Creating Playgrounds for Early Childhood Facilities

 

This guide focuses on outdoor environment planning for infant through preschool-age children. It identifies developmental milestones and recommended equipment for each age group, along with suggestions, resources and considerations when creating playscapes and selecting play equipment.

Link to resource

Leadership Effectiveness: How to Be a Better Leader

This page will provide you with new ways to think about your role or position as a leader. Discover why your strengths matter then learn to use yours to become a transformational leader. 

Link to resource