NEW: ECELS Emergency Preparedness Master List of Resources

Resources Listed by Topic

18 Vision Development Milestones From Birth to Baby's First Birthday

Milestones can vary by 6 weeks (except that baby’s eyes should appear straight by the 5th month). If your child is not meeting milestones, please talk with your child’s primary health care provider. View this milestone pathway created by the National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness.

Milestones - Birth to First Birthday

AAP Children and Disasters

As part of the work to prepare professionals to manage disaster situations, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) created a special webpage for professionals working in early education and child care settings. The AAP website about children and disasters has a Special Webpage for child care providers that includes carefully selected links to credentialed, practical sources of information. Users will find workbooks, guides, sample forms and other tools on these sites. The materials are appropriate for both center-based and home-based facilities.

Active Supervision

All Head Start ECE staff and volunteers are responsible for making sure no child is left unsupervised. Active supervision is a strategy that works in classrooms, family child care, playgrounds, and buses.

Print and display this at-a-glance handout and poster throughout your program to remind everyone of active supervision strategies.

Act Early - CDC Free Materials Promote Developmental Milestones

Learn the Signs, Act Early is a program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It offers activities and materials that foster recognition of developmental milestones. The CDC Act Early website has free online materials for parents, credit-bearing professional development for early educators and health professionals. Examples include:

For Parents in Spanish and English: Amazing Me-It’s Busy Being 3! Download the FREE iBook or PDF version or order a FREE print copy at www.cdc.gov/AmazingMe
For Early Educators: Watch Me! Celebrating Milestones and Sharing Concerns is a FREE, 1-hour online continuing education course. The engaging videos are in 4 modules that take a total of an hour to view. They show how teachers/caregivers monitor the development of the children in their care and talk with parents about developmental concerns. For the continuing education credit, users must complete all 4 modules, each quiz and a final evaluation. Access the training at www.cdc.gov/WatchMeTraining

Act Early Campaign - CDC Go Out and Play Kit

The Centers for Disease Control and has created a 14 page Go Out and Play! Kit for use in early learning programs as part of its "Learn the Signs, Act Early" Campaign. The kit coordinates developmental milestones with games and activities for preschool children. In addition to tips for making outdoor activities fun and educational, the kit includes information for caregivers/teachers to use and for parents to engage in at-home play.

Breastfeeding-Friendly Child Care Guide

First Food developed a Breastfeeding-Friendly Child Care Guide to explain how child care programs can best support breast/chestfeeding parents and their children in their care, by following national breastfeeding and infant feeding standards.

Caring for Our Children, National Health and Safety Performance Standards

Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Performance Standards; Guidelines for Early Care and Education Programs, 4th Edition contains guidelines on the development and evaluation of the health and safety of children in early care and education settings. Hard copy version of the book can be purchased from the bookstore of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Child Abuse & Neglect (Maltreatment)

This is a list of documents, forms and organizations with reliable information about child abuse and neglect as a problem as well as proven approaches to prevent and manage child maltreatment.

Child Abuse Glossary

Child Abuse Document Packet

Child with Special Needs Resources

This extensive list of weblinks, print resources and supports includes both national and Pennsylvania credentialled sources of information. It is intended for early educators, parents and health professionals who are caring for children with chronic physical, behavioral and developmental challenges.

CSHCN Resources Handout

Care Plan Explanation

Care Plan Checklist for Children with Special Needs

Children's Environmental Health Network

CEHN is working to enact true systems transformation to protect the environmental health of children in child care through its national Eco-Healthy Child Care® (EHCC) program. Creating safer and healthier child care settings–free of harmful environmental hazards–is key to protecting the safety and well-being of our nation’s children. Young children are the most vulnerable to toxic exposures.

Factsheets

Communication Strategies: Motivational Interviewing

Some tools in your motivational interviewing toolkit include asking open-ended questions, reflective listening, sharing the agenda setting, eliciting pros and cons of change, providing information using the elicit-provide-elicit technique, inquiring about the importance and confidence of making a change, and summarizing the conversation.

More information and details can be found on the AAP.org website under Patient Care > Healthy Active Living for Families > Communicating with Families > Communication Strategies: Motivational Interviewing

Cook's Corner: Recipes for Healthy Snacks

Summer snacking for happy, healthy kids! View these recipes that support children's healthy growth and development with ingredients that are fresh, low in fat, and high in fiber.

Attached are free printable posters.

Recipes for Healthy Snacks

Quick Bites Poster

Finger Foods Poster

COVID Resources from the AAP News Monday, August 5, 2024

Resources

Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH) Matters Handouts

Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) Consultation is a free resources that supports children’s social-emotional development from birth through age 5 within early learning programs participating in Keystone STARS.

View the Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH) Matters Handouts that covers various topics. For example, Basic Needs Determine Behavior, Motivating the Desire To Learn, and Meaning of Behavior.

ECELS Tools to Meet Keystone STARS Standards

ECELS has many tools to help early care and education programs meet Keystone STARS Standards. The crosswalk document identifies ECELS resources that relate to specific STARS Standards. Steps for Early Care and Education Programs to Reduce Illness and Injury address Keystone STARS Standard LM.2.3

Steps for Early Care and Education Programs to Reduce Illness

Steps for Early Care and Education Programs to Reduce Injury

FDA approves first nasal spray to treat anaphylaxis

Children and adults with life-threatening allergies will have a needle-free treatment for anaphylaxis.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved neffy epinephrine nasal spray from ARSPharmaceuticals for the emergency treatment of anaphylaxis in people weighing at least 66 pounds. It is the first treatment that does not require an injection.

Find more information here.

Health Trends in Early Childhood

The Pennsylvania Key kicks off the monthly resource, Health Trends in Early Childhood, focused on trending health issues related to children from birth to age five and their families and caregivers. Health Trends focuses on what we can do to keep children healthy.

Each month, find information about a recent health trend in early childhood, learn why it is important, discover the impact it has on children, their families and caregivers, and the community, as well as actions we can take to ensure the health and well-being of children in our communities. You can also find reliable resources to learn more about the issue. Feel free to print and share the one-page Health Trend and explore the resources.

GO NAPSACC - Nutritional and Physical Activity Materials

The Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (NAP SACC) project at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention is now “Go NAP SACC.” Go NAP SACC features an interactive website. Look there for resources for children from birth – 5 years, a focus on breastfeeding and infant feeding, screen time, and outdoor play. Go NAP SACC can be adapted for different child care settings, including family child care homes. The Go NAP SACC website, found at www.gonapsacc.org, gives technical assistance professionals self-assessments and tools. You can follow Go NAP SACC on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/GoNAPSACC) and Twitter.

Health & Safety Resources for Topics in Model Child Care Health Policies

This resource list was prepared from questions Child Care Health Consultants received. The topics align with Model Child Care Health Policies, 5th Ed. When preparing or revising policies, the resources identified can be helpful to improve health and safety practices.

Health and Safety Resources for Topics in Model Child Care Health Policies

Infant and Toddler Physical Activity Resources

These excellent state, Head Start and national resources are packed with good ideas about how to foster developmentally-appropriate physical activities for infants and toddlers. Download and explore them to add variety and value to the curriculum for infants and toddlers.

Infant and Toddler Physical Activity Resource List

Infant & Toddler Resource Guide

Whether you work in family child care or a center-based program serving infants, toddlers, and their families; your interest, care, and dedication provide the essential ingredients for high-quality care. Many infants and toddlers spend much of their time in group care settings. This means, that their everyday interactions with you, their peers, and their opportunities to explore in the prepared play environment, have a profound effect on their learning and development. Our infants and toddlers deserve the very best that we can offer.

This section of the Infant/Toddler Resource Guide includes articles, videos, links, and other learning materials. These are designed to help you build your skills and understanding and support your growth as a professional who provides high-quality services for infants, toddlers, and families in your community. The guide is growing, so check back frequently for updates, such as materials in Spanish.

There’s a Spanish language site for infant/toddler care providers. You can find articles, activities, handouts, links to useful resources, and child care video clips to help support your care for infants, toddlers, and their families. Click here to go right to the Spanish resources.

About the Infant/Toddler Resource Guide

State and Territory Infant/Toddler Child Care System

Topic Overview Health & Safety

Influenza - Reliable Information on the Internet

This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "flu" website is a good home base for information about influenza. It has handouts, clear explanations about the risks and protections

Mealtime Memo - December 2024

In the face of chilly temperatures, engaging in outdoor activities may seem less inviting. Yet, the importance of maintaining an active lifestyle is vital. This Mealtime Memo highlights the importance of physical activity and provides a variety of opportunities for staying active, both indoors and outdoors, within the child care setting.

Mealtime Memo - December 2024

Measles Facts - PA Department of Health

Measles Fact Sheet (PDF)

Measles Fact Sheet for Parents and Guardians (PDF)

Measles: Information to Prevent Spread in School and Child Care Settings (PDF)

Safe at Home: Protecting Kids from Lead in Water and Paint

Keeping our children safe and healthy starts right at home. One hidden danger many families may not know about is lead—an invisible toxin found in old paint and even in drinking water. However, with a few simple steps, families can prevent childhood lead exposure and create a safe environment for kids to grow and thrive. Share with families how to protect children from lead

Tips for Keeping Children Safe: A Developmental Guide

During the first five years, children constantly acquire new skills and knowledge. Caregivers who know what children can do and how they can get hurt can protect them from injury.

This tool provides safety tips for early childhood staff working with young children in classroom environments. Each section includes a description of development and safety tips organized by daily routines. Some tips apply to all children. Others address the developmental needs of children in a specific age group. If children in your classroom fit more than one developmental level, review the safety tips for each here.

Toileting Independence in Preschool-age Children

“Toileting independence” or “toilet learning” is a skill that a child learns over time. It is a skill that takes practice, like climbing steps, using scissors, pouring milk, and other developmental skills. It’s different from “toilet training.” The main difference is that toileting independence is child directed, and toilet training is adult directed. Toilet training can raise stress for adults and children, lead to power struggles, and harm relationships.

Download this PDF from Head Start for more information: Toileting Independence in Preschool-age Children

Window Falls - Prevent Child Injury

Window falls prevention toolkit is: Window Falls — Prevent Child Injury

Resources

To direct users to credentialed, reliable sources of information about health and safety, ECELS lists and offers links and other contact information for those that seem most helpful. This section lists national organizations, federally-funded National (child care) Resource Centers, federal and state agencies, other programs offered by the PA Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, other PA organizations whose work is relevant to early education/child care operation, resource lists by topic, Healthy Child Care organizations like ECELS in other states, and manuals/booklets/pamphlets/model policies