Understood: Hub

 

 This resource offers several articles from Understood that can be tailored to your specific needs.

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Conversation Starters for Teachers to Use with Families

 

As an educator, you know the importance of collaborative partnerships with families.  But when it comes time to talk about a concern you have about a student, it can be heard to know how to start.  Here are a few things to keep in mind.

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10 More Tips for Handling Difficult Parent Conversations at Your Preschool

 

Learn tips from other early educators about how to navigate hard conversations with parents and families.

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15 Unique Virtual Field Trips for Students

 

Virtual field trips are engaging and connect students with opportunities, ideas, and places they might not be able to access inside a classroom.

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Download: Summer Camp Toolkit for Kids Who Learn and Think Differently

 

Summer camp can be a great experience for kids who learn and think differently. If you’re able to send your child to camp, use this toolkit to communicate with the camp and help your child prepare.

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Universal Prekindergarten Partnership Guidebook

 

Resources to create a common understanding of UPK and facilitate essential partnerships between family serving organizations, community-based organizations, and local education agencies.

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Part 2: Supporting Quality Play Relationships-Preschoolers

 

Join us in the second part of a discussion on the importance of play with Dr. Sue Starks.  We discuss the fact that play is a developmental need and that all children show us what they need through play.  Quality play is encouraged through the supports, prompts, activities, and experiences that we provide in the early childhood setting.

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Part 1: Supporting Quality Play Relationships-Infants and Toddlers

Listen as our guest, Dr. Sue Starks, talks about one of her passions, supporting play in young children.  Dr. Starks shares that play is relationship based and your environment matters.

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Commonly Asked Questions About Child Care Centers and The Americans with Disabilities Act

 

This resource from the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, offers answers to some commonly asked questions.

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50 Things to Do Before You’re 12

 

We should be encouraging physical activity habits and a connection with nature among children before they reach the age of 12, so here are a list of things to do before you’re 12.

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The Best Way to Ease the Back-to-School Transition

 

Returning to school can be exciting, stressful, and exhausting all at the same time. Some kids might need a little more time to adjust.

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How To Embrace the Power of Play for Children with Special Needs

 

Play is a powerful way to help children learn, grow, and bond with you and their peers. If you’re a caregiver to children with special needs, there are several ways to adapt activities to create a fun learning environment where they can build their confidence and their skills.

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11 Every Night Ways to Build Stronger Reading Skills

 

Children with ADHD and learning disabilities often struggle to become confident readers with strong comprehension skills. Here’s how easy-to-follow tips can help your reader.

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How Do I Support My Child with ADHD During Our Divorce?

 

Children with ADHD may be particularly unsettled as they adjust to a divorce in the family. Here’s how to calm their worries.

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CrossRoad: Where Down Syndrome Meets Autism

 

This short film follows three families whose child has both Down syndrome and autism.

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Your Child’s 7 Executive Functions-And How to Boost Them

 

One hallmark of ADHD is executive function trouble-problems planning, organizing, or self-regulating. In this article, parents can follow these 10 tips to boost all 7 executive functions and help your child gain more independence.

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Smart Kids Learning Disabilities: Examples of Accommodations & Modifications

 

This resource offers examples of accommodations and modifications and can be made to a program.

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20 Ideas for Family Service Projects

This resources offers several service project ideas that can be done with families. 

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Strategies For Supporting Self-Regulation: Snapshot Series

 

These tip sheets offer a review of key concepts related to self-regulation, a list of the skills developing in each age group, and six co-regulation tips for caregivers to support specific self-regulation skills developing at each stage.

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7 Ways to Support Executive Function in Your Classroom

 

This article explains how to design your classroom environment and materials to support a wide range of executive function skills, from managing distractions to boosting planning skills.

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Stress: The Basics

This poster set includes information about stress and practices to support wellness. Some posters are directed toward adults in the workplace, while others could be helpful for older children through adults.

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Why Kids Lie and What Parents Can Do About It

This article explains how to help kids find honest alternatives to bending the truth.

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Understanding the Role of Special Needs Parenting in Raising Unique Children

 

 The role of special needs parenting goes beyond just raising a child with unique abilities, and it requires extra care, attention, and support. In this opinion piece, read the importance of understanding the role of special needs parenting in raising unique children.

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How to Give Effective Instructions

 

This resource has great tips for educators and parents of how to communicate effectively with children, which can increase children’s responsiveness and minimize challenging behaviors.

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How To Make A DIY Obstacle Course Outside

To get kids outside, help them flex their creative muscles, and have them get an all-over workout, here are some inexpensive everyday items that you can use to get your kids started creating an obstacle course of their own.

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Cultivating Wellness: 8 Dimensions of Staff Well-Being

 

As staff face daily demands and personal challenges, you may consider these eight dimensions of staff well-being.

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Creating A Staff Wellness Action Plan

 

A Staff Wellness Action Plan allows your program to be intentional and thoughtful about creating a workplace that values staff wellness, mental health, and physical health.

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Helping Your Child with Social Cues

 

Understanding social cues, like tone of voice and body language, can be tricky for lots of kids. Building these skills takes time and practice.

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Adult Recess

 

One of the most fun ways adults can practice and increase their own emotional regulation is through play. Adult Recess is a series of animated videos that support participants in moving their bodies in mindful ways to promote and practice regulation skills.

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8 Summer Olympics-Themed Sports Games for Young Kids

 

Here are eight ways you can bring the Olympic spirit to your own backyard.

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Preventing Expulsion in Child Care

 

This tip sheet is designed to give you strategies to prevent expulsion of a child with challenging behaviors.

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Water Play for Infants

 

The following article describes how different elements of water play can be engaging and helpful for developing fine and gross motor skills.

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Benefits of Outdoor Play and Exploration

 

Infants and toddlers benefit from outdoor play and exploration in important ways. This resource explores four of these benefits.

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5 Ways to Create a Literacy-Rich Preschool Classroom

 

Consider these straightforward ideas for setting up a literacy-friendly environment for pre-K learners.

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Supporting Language: Culturally Rich Dramatic Play

 

Here are some ideas for planning language-rich environments that help dual language learners develop communication skills.

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How Play Promotes Cognitive Development

 

Play promotes the development of a multitude of cognitive skills. When children participate in play and have opportunities to become fully involved in what they are doing, they develop more complex ways of thinking.

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Wonder: A Many Splendored Thing

 

Wonder is more than a frill in the lives of young children. Wonder fosters learning, imagination, spiritual development, emotional health, and care for the planet.

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Taking Dramatic Play Outside-Ideas to Get You Started!

 

By adding a few simple props from either indoors or the yard itself and making varying arrangements to the regular outdoor play space educators and parents can stand back and watch the learning, role play, and conversations unfold organically.

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Creating a Healthier Life: A Step by Step Guide to Wellness

 

This printable guide created by the SAMHSA Wellness Initiative is geared towards adults struggling with mental health, but can also be a great resource for anyone who would like to create purpose and balance, along with having less stress in their lives. It goes into the definition of wellness, providing tips, suggestions, and journal space to learn how to improve the eight dimensions of wellness in your life: physical wellness, intellectual wellness, financial wellness, environmental wellness, spiritual wellness, social wellness, occupational wellness, and emotional wellness.

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10 Olympian-Inspired Activity Ideas for Toddlers

 

Try these simple toddler activities inspired by summer Olympic sports to spark their enthusiasm and make them feel like little Olympians!

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Teaching Self-Regulation by Modeling

 

This video shares the benefits of teaching self-regulation by modeling to children, with real life examples.