Inclusion Matters

Public Health Nurse Sarah Hawley, from Minnesota Child Care Health Consultants talks with us about ways to keep the whole team healthy in a child care setting. Staff health directly effects the health of children and their families.  Sarah talks with us about ways we can build a healthy lifestyle and also keep germs at bay in the workplace and keep those germs from spreading to families.

Inclusion Matters hosts a conversation with Faith Kidder, a Child Health Consultant from the Child and Teen Checkups (C&TC) Team at  the Minnesota Department of Health.  Faith leads us through a discussion about the importance of early screening for young children and the ways that Minnesota supports this process through many resources like Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT), a federal program to ensure the children who are eligible for Medical assistance receive appropriate timely preventive well child health care.

Our guest, Sarah Hawley, RN, BSN, PHN, shares the most recent updates to the precautions and expectations that child care settings need in place related to the current Covid status.  This episode covers an overview of the CDC’s CURRENT Operational Guidance to Support In-person Learning.

Our guest Michele Kvikstad, Program Coordinator for Follow Along in Minnesota joins us to share about this wonderful free program for families.  Michele highlights the way the Follow Along Program helps support caregivers of infants and young children track their child's development and let you know if your child is playing, talking, growing, moving, and behaving like other children the same age. Listen and learn more about this great free resource for families. https://www.health.state.mn.us/mnfap

Join us as we learn about Parent Aware from our guest, Katie Hoffman, Director of Quality Improvement at Child Care Aware of Minnesota.  We walk through the history, the principles, and the many benefits of becoming a Parent Aware Rated child care program.

Public Health Nurse and owner of MN Child Care Health Consultants, Sarah Hawley, joins us on this episode to share ways early childhood professionals can create a “breastfeeding friendly” child care setting.  Sarah highlights the health benefits of breastfeeding and the ways that supporting this personal parent decision can enhance the overall setting.

Kim Woehl, one of our CICC Coaches and a former licensed family child care provider, joins this episode.  Kim has many useful insights as to how to meet the needs of many different children at various ages and stages in the family child care setting.  She shares strategies related to building a flexible yet consistent routine, and tips and tricks that calm chaos and meet varied needs.

In this episode, we host Anna Paulson, from Region 11 Help Me Grow as she shares the many ways Help Me Grow MN (HMGMN)  supports the healthy development of young children.  She highlights the way HMGMN enables parents, caregivers, professionals, and others to know when there are child development concerns and who to contact when these concerns arise.  An early start can change long-term outcomes for children.  Early services can mean fewer or no services later in life.  That is the goal.  Listen and learn more about the ways Help Me Grow MN meets that goal and supports those caring for young children along the path to success.

Inclusion Matters welcomes back our friend Sarah Hawley of Minnesota Child Care Health Consultants to talk about helping children develop healthy eating patterns.  Sarah shares ways that early childhood educators can set a strong foundation for those in their care by providing opportunities to explore healthy foods and using positive modeling to encourage healthy choices.  She also shares wonderful free resources available to help you plan fun activities and share solid information with families.

Join us as we welcome Jacy Nylander, CICC Coaching Lead, as we discuss the current state of the field of early childhood.  As our field experiences the combination of the pandemic and ongoing social inequities it has led to a staffing shortage and in turn, affected how professionals, families, and children are existing in the community together.  We’ll focus on 3 areas that have been greatly impacted, our sense of safety, connection, and self-efficacy.