HMG Partners with Western Health Center

HMG Central Alabama Coordinator, Danna
with Super Why

Exciting things are happening in Central Alabama! Through our great partnership with Reach Out and Read-Alabama, Help Me Grow care coordinators are building relationships with pediatricians and engaging families in their medical home to demonstrate the impact reading can have on the developing brain and connect families to additional resources when needed. Today Western Health Center of the Jefferson County Department of Health, is hosting a Prescription for Summer Reading event in collaboration with Reach Out and Read-Alabama and Alabama Public Television’s effort to promote summer reading in pediatric practices and clinics around the state. In addition, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama and the Caring Foundation will be presenting the center with 1,800 books to be distributed to patients through the year. The event will highlight the importance of reading for preparing a child to enter school, and will showcase the services that all families at Western Health Center have access to during well-child visits. Well-child visits are more than just a time for vaccinations, but an opportunity to focus on all areas of a child’s development and ensure parents have the knowledge, resources, and tools to best support their child starting at birth. To accomplish this, Western Health Center will be collaborating with other organizations in the community to offer families the following services:

Reach Out and Read Statewide Coordinator, Polly
with Super Why

1. Ages & Stages Developmental Screening
2. Developmentally appropriate books and instructions for parents about reading daily and brain development through Reach Out and Read-Alabama
3. Registration for all children in Dolly Parton Imagination Library to receive additional books through age five
4. Care coordination and referral for needed developmental services through Help Me Grow Central Alabama

School readiness begins at birth and primary care offices have a unique opportunity to engage families early. The services offered at Western Health Center are a great example of progress being made towards ensuring every child in Alabama enters school prepared to learn.

Getting Ready for School with PBS KIDS

PBS KIDS is a great place to find age-appropriate resources that help kids get ready for school! This website has fun activities for children, parent information on how to help children get ready for school, and classroom-ready digital resources for teachers. There is also a child development tracker, age appropriate activity search, and school readiness program. Remember to limit your child's screen-time, and the best way to prepare your child for school is through interactions with you and peers. For more information visit http://pbskids.org.

PBS KIDS

Preschool Readiness

ZERO TO THREE has some great suggestions about getting ready for preschool. Here are some highlights, follow the link for more details.

As you prepare for your child to being preschool, try to keep your efforts low-key. If you make too big a deal out of this milestone, your child may end up being more worried than excited. Here are some ways to focus on the fun.

• Use pretend play to explore the idea of preschool: take turns being the parent, child and teacher. Act out common daily routines, such as saying good-bye to mommy and/or daddy, taking off your coat, singing songs, reading stories, having Circle Time, playing outside, and taking naps.
• Read books about preschool: Choose several to share with your child over the summer before school starts. Talk about the story and how the characters are feeling. Ask how your child is feeling. Here is a list of nine “starting preschool” books to get the conversation started.
• Make a game out of practicing self-help skills: For example, you might want to have a "race" with your child to see how quickly she can put on her shoes. When you play school together, you can give your child the chance to practice taking off her coat, zipping her backpack closed, and sitting “criss-cross applesauce.”
• Play at your new preschool: Visit your child’s preschool together. These visits increase your child’s comfort with and confidence in this new setting.

During the two weeks before preschool starts:

• Purchase a backpack together with your child. If possible, let your child choose it himself.
• Label all items—backpack, jacket, shoes, blanket, teddy bear, etc.—with your child’s name and teacher’s name in permanent ink.
• Contact the preschool’s health professional if your child has medication that he or she takes on a daily basis. 
• Figure out how your child will get to school and how she will come home. Talk to your child about the morning and afternoon routine so that she understands that she will be safe, okay, and cared for. 
• Start using your child’s “school bedtime.” Help your child get into a preschool schedule by keeping to his or her school bedtime, beginning about two weeks before school starts.

For more ideas, visit ZERO TO THREE.

How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime

There is now scientific research that supports a direct link between early childhood experiences and physical health through both behavioral and biological pathways. In the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Study of over 17,000 participants, individuals who had experienced multiple adverse events were also more likely to suffer from many of the leading causes of death in the U.S., even when controlled for smoking, excessive drinking, or obesity. In a recent TED Talk, Nadine Burke Harris shares her experiences as a pediatrician and witnessing firsthand the detrimental effects childhood trauma can have on an individual’s health. In the video, Harris describes the evolution of her medical practice to viewing childhood trauma as a medical issue to better treat her patients and begin working towards preventing its lasting effects into adulthood. For more information on Nadine Burke Harris’s work and research, read her story here. 

Brandon's Story: The Impact of Early Intervention

This 2015 Telly Award winning video features Brandon’s mother as she talks about the importance and impact of early intervention on her son’s life and on her family. You’ll also hear from Brandon, who is a teenager and talented musician.