Topic Areas
This workshop teaches early learning practitioners how to recognize and manage occupational health risks, drawing on the content in Caring for Our Children: the National Health and Safety Performance Standards. Addresses management of stress, infectious disease risks and musculo-skeletal (ergonomic) challenges intrinsic to providing child care. Includes assessment of personal and work-site health promotion strategies.
The Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation is located at Georgetown University. It was created through a grant from the federal Office of Head Start, this center's website is richly populated with Tutorials about promoting social-emotional development, Stress Reduction information, Tool Kits for making observations, and Tools to address Temperament. For example, the tutorial about Recognizing and Supporting the Social-Emotional Health of Young Children, Birth to Age 5 not only provides the usual developmental landmarks, but also uses scenarios to suggest how to handle challenging behaviors in each stage. The tool kits have a variety of checklists to record observations of social-emotional behaviors for a group or for individual children. The intended users of the materials include Head Start administrators and staff as well as trainers, technical assistance providers, and health consultants. Some materials are suitable for parent use as well. 1/2012
The Center began as a collaborative of experts in socio-emotional health that was jointly funded by Head Start and the Child Care Bureau. Originally, located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the center has moved to Vanderbuilt University. It offers a wealth of material on its website. The Briefs are summaries of effective practices to support children's social-emotional development and prevent challenging behaviors. Each Brief describes practical strategies, provides references to more information about the practice, and includes a one-page handout that highlights the major points in the brief. Each is available in English and Spanish. The website includes training modules, videos and is the home of the national pyramid model for states to enhance socio-emotional competent caregiving. Go to http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/ to link to the website where you will find these excellent tools. Updated 11/4/12
The mission of this Harvard University-based center is to leverage scientific evidence to enhance child well-being. The center's website has a series of easily understood short videos and longer well-referenced policy papers. These tools have excellent graphics to explain how both positive and negative early influences on the young child affect the development of the child's brain and life-long health. The evidence discussed in the website materials clearly indicate the economic, social and community benefits of investment in quality experiences from the prenatal period onward.
The CDC is a comprehensive source of information on public health issues, including immunization, sanitation, and infectious disease. The CDC provides a large library of information to the public on many topics. Some of the categories include: Diseases and Conditions; Emergency Preparedness & Response; Environmental Health; Life Stages & Populations; Healthy Living, Injury, Violence & Safety; Traveler's Health; Workplace Safety & Health. The CDC website includes a powerful search engine as well as alphabetical listings. Users will find fact sheets, videos, photos, posters, and other useful materials to download.
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
- Reviewed and reaffirmed 9/2021
Learn how to protect children in your early care and education (ECE) program from abuse and neglect. This module addresses how to prevent, identify and report child abuse and neglect. It describes your responsibilities as a mandated reporter as required by the Child Protective Services Law (CPSL). By using the recommended practices, you will help ensure the safety of children in your care.
To complete this module, view the 3 online video segments Segment 1 Segment 2 Segment 3 . The three videos are best viewed all at once. Use the three links below to the Document Packet, Glossary, and Instructions to Claim Credit for the current versions. Use the resources in the Document Packet and complete the Assessment and Case Studies. You may either download the Assessment and Case Studies to complete and email/surface mail to ECELS or complete and submit your documentation online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ecelschildabuseandneglect. Follow the instructions in the "Important Reminders" box when you submit your work to ECELS for review for professional development credit.
This module is approved for Act 31 credit.
PA Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators (PA PSCEC):
- Standard Area 7: Health and Safety
- 7a: Understand the importance of physical health and safety in creating environments that support young children’s learning and development.
Competencies:
- Identify and follow current laws, regulations, and professional obligations to report suspected child abuse and neglect
- Apply child abuse and neglect prevention efforts within families and among early care and education professionals
- Identify signs and symptoms of child abuse and neglect (maltreatment)
- Demonstrate knowledge of PA reporting requirements for mandated reporters
Reviewed and reaffirmed 11/2022
ECELS Child Abuse and Neglect Workshop meets the Child Protective Services law requirements for mandated reporters. In this workshop you will learn about prevention efforts, recognizing signs and symptoms of child maltreatment, reporting requirements and the process for reporting.
This entirely online updated guide on the federally supported Child Welfare Information Gateway supports working with parents, caregivers and children to prevent child abuse and neglect. The guide describes protective factors that reduce the risk of child maltreatment, as well as strategies and practices for supporting families. In addition to a directory of national organizations, the guide offers tip sheets on parenting topics in English and in Spanish. Go to the website, and then search for or select the title "Strengthening Families" to access these materials.
To celebrate the 10th birthday of Learn the Signs, Act Early, the Centers for Disease Control is offering free online materials for parents, and credit-bearing professional development for early educators and health professionals. These gifts are on the Act Early website at http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/.
For Parents in Spanish and English: Amazing Me—It’s Busy Being 3! This book is for children two to four years of age. It is about Joey, an amazing 3-year-old kangaroo. Joey is very excited about all that he can do now that he is three. As parents read this book to their children, they will learn about what to look for as the child grows and develops. Parents can read this story to their child online or have a hard copy of the book. Each page with a koala bear has a star and developmental milestone at the bottom. Parents should see if their 3-year-old is able to do what Joey does.
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 FREE VIDEO TRAINING IS AVAILABLE FOR CREDIT! Early care and education providers can access a FREE, 1-hour online continuing education course. The Watch Me! videos are in 4 modules that engage the viewer in child care scenes. The modules 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 continuing education credit, complete all 4 modules, each quiz and a final evaluation.
Access this free video training at www.cdc.gov/WatchMeTraining
For Health Professionals – Autism Case Training (ACT) Online CE Course
This free, web-based, continuing education course consists of three modules with PowerPoint and video components. Users can view and complete all the materials online. The modules have facilitator guides for using the modules in a group. The content focuses on how health professionals and future health professionals can identify, diagnose, and care for children with autism spectrum disorder.
Early educators can use the free, online access to this module to explore what is known about the symptoms and treatment of autism too. Go to www.cdc.gov/AutismCaseTraining. The training is approved for health professionals to earn credit for: CME, CNE, CEU and American Board of Pediatrics’ MOC (Part 2; 20pts).
Devereux Center for Resilient Children is part of a large non-profit educational and behavioral health organization. Their activities include providing behavioral health and rehabilitation services, special education support as well as promoting resilience of children and adults. Reviewed and reaffirmed 4/2018.
Discipline principles explained for parents and caregivers of children attending early education and care programs. In PA, please send your health and safety request with your name and phone number to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Updated 6/2018.
Children learn through meaningful relationships. Positive interaction with consistent adults is essential for early brain development. Verbal and nonverbal communication during routine care is a good approach. Teachers can show families what to do. Speak in soft, encouraging, and positive ways to children. Encourage being respectful and treating children as you would like to be treated.
Visit the Early Learning GPS (Guiding Parents Smoothly) website. Pennsylvania’s Promise for Children campaign developed it. The GPS offers information for parents of young children about helping their children learn and grow.
Many indoor and outdoor activities help children’s brains and bodies grow. They can provide large and small muscle physical activity children need. Activities can help children make friends, be creative and control their actions. Also, activities can enable children to use information they’ve learned before to learn new things, focus and think through ideas before acting on them. These processes are called the “executive functions" of the brain. The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University compares executive functions to air traffic control at a busy airport. The link to the Center on the Developing Child is http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php?cID=520.