Relevant Research

May has been a busy month in the world of early childhood research. We've created a short list of some newly released resources!

- Dr. Dworkin, Director of the Help Me Grow National Center, has updated his blog again. This time it's filled with links to interesting brain research as presented by Jack Shonkoff and others regarding the impact of early adversity on young children and the importance of strong communities! Visit his post and explore the latest in baby brain science.

- Charles Bruner, executive director of the Child and Family Policy Center, has shared a brief summary that covers the existing and potential opportunities for financing from Medicaid for Help Me Grow. In the summary, he illuminates opportunities for expansion and sustainability for Help Me Grow affiliates around the nation. See the description here or download the summary (pdf) directly here.

- The Urban Institute's latest report, Disconnected Mothers and the Well-Being of Children (pdf), synthesizes research related to low-income mothers disconnected from both work and welfare. The research shows that many of the circumstances disconnected mothers face pose major risks to children's development. As shared by Zero to Three, this paper provides potential interventions to help disconnected families, including increasing and stabilizing family income, enhancing parenting skills, supporting children directly, and reaching out to disconnected mothers who are not citizens.

- We hope you'll participate in the Early Learning Day of Action on June 5th. The day is a call to action to emphasize the importance of early learning from birth to five. You could plan and participate in a community rally, or simply send out a tweet. Every action, great or small, is a step in the right direction of bringing attention to the needs of young children! Learn more and get ideas from this online toolkit.

Alabama Chapter - AAP

Linda Lee has served since 2007 as Executive Director of the Alabama Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), where she oversees administration of the 700-member state society of pediatricians. During her tenure, she has grown the Chapter’s capacity to meet pediatric goals in numerous child health priority areas. As part of her role, Linda serves on numerous task forces, coalitions and committees including the Help Me Grow Alabama leadership team. We asked Linda to share a little with us about the work she has done and how AAP’s goals overlap with Help Me Grow.

Linda Lee, Executive Director
Alabama Chapter - American Academy of Pediatrics

Since 2007, in conjunction with Alabama’s Blueprint for Zero to Five initiative, the Chapter has co-led efforts to increase the percentage of children who receive standardized developmental screening in the medical home. We started this with the Alabama Assuring Better Child Health and Development (ABCD) project, which developed pilots in pediatric practices to train pediatricians on how to implement and score the Ages and Stages Questionnaire and refer for appropriate follow-up. In partnership with Alabama Medicaid Agency and ALL Kids, one of our goals was to establish state policy for third-party payment for standardized screening in the medical home. These efforts paid off, as Medicaid, ALL Kids, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama have all developed policy around and now pay pediatricians and family physicians for developmental screening (limited). 

Since the ABCD pilots, AAP’s strong alliance with partners at Alabama Department of Public Health, Alabama Partnership for Children, and Alabama Department of Mental Health has happily evolved to the Help Me Grow model, a natural step for this work. We have been pleased to join forces with the United Way of Central Alabama/Success By 6 in expanding standardized screening further in a five-county area in Central Alabama. HMG & AAP trains pediatricians on use of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, coupled with the important benefit of having a connection to community resources via the HMG call center. We are excited about this partnership and the work that UWCA has done to make this a reality. In addition, this initiative has married AAP’s early literacy program, Reach Out and Read-Alabama, with HMG by connecting practices in the five-county area with new books for children from six months to five years of age. We owe a lot to the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham for its support of HMG-Central Alabama.

Linda can be reached at 334-954-2543 or llee@alaap.org.

National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day

Thursday, May 9th is National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day

The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is the nation's leader for children's mental health services. SAMHSA's "Caring for Every Child's Mental Health" public awareness effort was created in 1994 with the mission to increase awareness around children's mental health. Every year there is a renewed public awareness effort and theme.

This year SAMHSA focuses on the importance of social connectedness—a sense of community—in enhancing resilience in young adults with mental health and substance use challenges at home, school, work, and in accessing health care services.

Watch this year's video here

Follow these links for more SAMHSA resources:
2013 - Social Connectedness Virtual Event
2012 - Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Report

2011 - Child Resilience PSA
2010 - School Readiness PSA
2009 - Mental Health as a Priority PSA

Brain Growth

"It is widely accepted that the most critical time in a person’s life are the first few years. During the first year a child doubles in size both height and weight, but most importantly, the child grows immensely in brain power. It is that power that will decide their entire future..."

Help Me Grow Utah is a fellow Help Me Grow affiliate, their post last week is a great description of why HMG staff are passionate about serving families and helping babies grow.

Follow the link to find out why we (and HMG Utah) put such a priority on baby brain development.

Family Outreach - Books, Balls, and Blocks

Last month we featured Robin Mackey and her work with Strengthening Families. Today she shares her experiences with us in light of a recent Books, Balls, and Blocks event...

As a social worker I have worked with families in a variety of settings. I have found my recent work, focused on early childhood, to be especially rewarding. I have seen firsthand, the difficulties families face in addressing challenges experienced by older children. The fact is that when a teenager is experiencing social, emotional or behavioral difficulties, families often find themselves struggling to find the right help. Those fortunate enough to get the help they need still face a steep uphill battle to achieve the change they hope for.

In contrast, the early childhood world is all about bright beginnings. We know that when families get what they need when children are young, those children are set on a positive trajectory toward excellent outcomes. When challenges are identified, families of young children have an opportunity to take steps to prevent problems from escalating and, in many cases, reverse any negative effects.

I recently had the opportunity to see just how important it is to get information and support to families. At a recent community event called Books, Balls and Blocks (which was piloted by HMG Utah) parents had an opportunity to complete the Ages and Stages Questionnaire 3 (ASQ-3) while their children engaged in developmentally enriching play. Of the 28 parents who came through the event, 4 identified some type of developmental concern when they completed their ASQ-3. Those families immediately received referrals for support, including information on how to connect to Help Me Grow. It helped me to remember how important this work is. We can’t give up in reaching out to families and helping them to understand what healthy child development looks like and how to find help if they have concerns.

Jane and ADMH

Jane Duer is the Early Intervention (EI) Coordinator for the Alabama Department of Mental Health (ADMH), one of many state partners with Help Me Grow. Jane joined ADMH in November 2012 after working at Children’s of Alabama for 21 years. In January 2013, Jane attended a Help Me Grow meeting of southeastern state leaders. We’re excited to have Jane as part of our team and wanted to share her perspective on HMG in Alabama…

Through my work at Children’s and now at ADMH, I know firsthand that many families of young children face difficulties in finding the resources, supports and services to help their children. While there are great resources available in Alabama, children and families still get lost and don’t know how to find their way. I’m passionate about Help Me Grow and ADMH EI because they have similar missions - to identify and connect developmentally delayed children and their families to services and other resources, provide outreach to physicians, and increase awareness regarding the importance of early screening and intervention to improve a child’s developmental outcomes. 

ADMH EI participates in Alabama’s Early Intervention System (AEIS) by contracting with 27 local community agencies across the state to provide direct EI services to infants and toddlers with special needs and their families. An infant or toddler in Alabama under the age of three may be eligible for EI services if they are experiencing at least a 25% delay in any of the five areas of development: cognitive, communication, physical (includes motor, hearing, and/or vision), adaptive/self-help, or social/emotional, or have a medical diagnosis that has a likelihood of leading to developmental delay during early childhood.

I am proud to coordinate ADMH’s EI service providers and to deliver much-needed services to children and families across the state. While Help Me Grow is still in its own “early childhood,” it has the potential to make incredible improvements in the lives of Alabama’s youngest children and families. HMG is something we as Alabama residents and stakeholders can be proud of and should help support in any way possible.

To find out more about Early Intervention in Alabama or to refer a child for screening and evaluation, click here.

Dr. Dworkin: Informing the National Discourse

Dr. Paul Dworkin is the founder of Help Me Grow and Director of the Help Me Grow National Center. He writes a monthly blog updating state affiliates and the public regarding HMG at a national level. In the excerpt below, he shares positive news from a recent meeting of national leaders.

On March 5, 2013, Joanna Bogin and I had the honor of representing the Help Me Grow National Center when federal officials came together with community leaders in Washington, D.C., at a meeting hosted by the Center for the Study of Social Policy.

The focus of the meeting, titled “Community-Based Assessment, Services and Supports for Young Children,” on community pathways for early identification, referral, and linkage to developmental services and supports for young children led to a lively, productive discussion. While we look forward to sharing with you a comprehensive review of the dialogue, two aspects of the session merit special attention...

Finish reading here and check out Dr. Dworkin's entire blog here.