By: Jacquelyn M. Rose, MPH It’s not enough to be an early care and education professional because you love working with children. If you love children, you must leverage your view, your voice, and your visibility to improve the systems and quality of services for young children and families. While a variety of words and…
Category: Child Development
Help Me Grow Report Details Nationwide Reach
The diagnosis came when Isabel’s daughter was just 33 months old. Autism. The family was shocked. They wondered how they missed the signs. They did not know where to turn for help. Isabel immediately contacted her pediatrician who referred her to their local Help Me Grow affiliate, Help Me Grow Orange County, California. Care coordinators…
Breastfeeding is Best!
By: Nancy Trout, MD, MPH The United States delegation to the United Nations World Health Assembly recently shocked the public health sector (and much of the world) by seeking to water down a resolution that called for governments to “protect, promote and support breastfeeding” and to restrict misleading advertising of food products that are harmful…
Can We Bend the Arc Toward Justice?
By: Kimberly Martini-Carvell Yes, “…the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Whether the author of this sentiment is Theodore Parker, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., or Barack Obama, it has always comforted me in times of national and political unrest and upheaval. I use this quote to ground…
Connecting Pediatric Residents to the Community Through Capitol Squash
By: Martha Peregoy When people hear about the sport squash, they typically think of players at boarding schools and at country clubs, not urban middle school students playing after school. However, there are a growing number of organizations that bring squash to urban students. One of these programs, Capitol Squash, is right here in Hartford….
Help Me Grow National Forum: “We Can Create Change!”
This year’s Help Me Grow National Forum was the largest to date for our Help Me Grow National Center (National Center), which is based at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford, Connecticut. More than 400 child health advocates gathered in Seattle from 29 states for the 3-day event. In 2017, 99 Help Me Grow systems…
Help Me Grow National Forum: The Inspiration Behind our Keynote Address
By: Kimberly Martini-Carvell The organizing, investing and curating of information, attendees and partners for the Help Me Grow National Forum is actualized by many. The Forum planning committee contributes significant energy and resources in informing and designing the content, while Help Me Grow National Center (National Center) staff works diligently to ensure that every opportunity…
Help Me Grow National Forum: An Opportunity to Advance a “Child-First” Agenda
By: Paul H. Dworkin, MD and Sharon Beaudoin As debate rages on as to how best reform our health care system, we ask, “What about our children?” It’s a question likely on the minds of the more than 400 child health advocates gathering in Seattle this week for the 9th annual Help Me Grow National Forum. This…
Engaging Early Childhood Providers to Improve Developmental Outcomes
By: Kimberly Martini-Carvell So often, community site visits between our Help Me Grow National Center staff and affiliates exploring and installing Help Me Grow (HMG) include a major focus on those tangible outcomes affiliates hope to achieve through the implementation of their HMG system. Regardless of the community, or the stakeholders engaged in the site…
“What Gets Measured Gets Done” Yet “We Measure What We Treasure”
By: Paul H. Dworkin, MD On February 7, 2018, I was excited to attend a convening organized by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to identify strategies to build consensus about indicators and measures of child well-being. The eloquent title of the meeting reflected the daunting challenge of the task…
Time to Reframe our World View
By: Paul H. Dworkin, MD Spirited debate over immigration policy in our country and controversial comments attributed to our president regarding immigrants’ nations of origin have fueled intense concerns for the international reputation of the United States. Pundits lament a loss of global standing and prestige due to such policies and comments, as well as…
Groundbreaking Developmental Assessment Model Detailed in New Report
By: Lisa Honigfeld, PhD Mid-Level Developmental Assessment (MLDA) provides an improved way to assess developmental needs in early childhood. A new report from the Child Health and Development Institute (CHDI) highlights its successes in five communities in identifying and meeting the needs of children with mild to moderate developmental and behavioral problems. Initially developed by…