Resources
75 Children's Books About Mental Health
Best books for helping kids understand emotional and learning challenges as listed on the Child Mind Institute
Mindfulness Activities You Can Do with Young Children
Mindfulness is all about focusing your awareness on the present moment. When practiced regularly, it can help us learn to manage stress, anxiety, and other challenging emotions. Practicing mindfulness with children teaches them regulation techniques like being aware of and controlling their breathing, which can have a calming effect on both the body and mind.
Read more about Mindfulness Activities from the Housman Institute here.
Stress is a normal and natural part of life. But why do some people manage stress well and build resiliency, while others seem to struggle? In this series of conversations, Dr. Bruce Perry explores the impact of stress and trauma on the brain and the resulting effect on learning. His teachings have helped schools significantly decrease behavior problems and create safe learning environments.
Ohio's Ready School Guide for Language and Literacy
The purpose of this guide is to support early care and education programs and kindergarten through 3rd-grade
school-based teams in their collaborative efforts to provide high-quality evidence-based language and literacy
practices for children entering kindergarten. This guide identifies six principles, seven key understandings and
four non-negotiable categories of a Ready School that serve as guideposts for the full implementation of a
Ready School.
Ohio Learns 360 - Summer Resources
Through a collaboration of Ohio’s eight PBS stations, Ohio Learns 360 offers free camp-in-a-box resources to summer and afterschool programs for children K-5. Included are a week’s worth of activities for 20 students and a facilitator’s guide. Programs can also arrange for live, interactive Zoom sessions with PBS educators for read-alouds, hands-on activities and clips from favorite PBS KIDS shows. Teachers can also access virtual field trips to some of Ohio’s leading museums and science centers. Find out more and register at Ohio Learns here.
Regional Family & Children First Council Newsletters
Click here for the latest news and resources to share with families. These newsletters are continuously updated throughout the months they cover. The most recent information can always be found at the top of each newsletter. You can also review past newsletters for additional resouces you may have missed. SST5 shares these with each of the four Family & Children First Councils in our region.
Loose Parts for Children with Diverse Abilities
How can we invite children with diverse abilities into the joyful buzz of our classrooms? Maybe Loose Parts play is the answer.
“Loose Parts are non-prescriptive and give complete control and power to children as they use them,” writes Miriam Beloglovsky. “Unlike toys, Loose Parts do not come with predetermined directions that measure children’s skills, knowledge, or capabilities.
“Loose Parts remind us that our focus should be on children’s joy of play rather than assessing skills and striving for mastery or promoting corrective measures.” Read more.
“Crisscross-Applesauce. . .” This familiar mantra has been heard in early education settings for decades. “Legs crossed, hands in lap, eyes on me!” The idea, of course, is that kids will pay greater attention to the teacher if they are required to sit still. But now, with abundant research showing the benefits of movement for learning, isn’t it time to call this practice obsolete?
Even for a limber adult, sitting on the floor, cross-legged, back straight, with hands in your lap, is a challenging position to maintain for more than a few minutes. So what are the alternatives? Read Rae Pica’s popular and controversial blog post here.
Criss-Cross Applesauce: Is it Time to Move On?
FREE Lesson Ideas
to Build a Kind Classroom
from Barefoot Books
ECI_LessonIdeas_KindKids_1022.pdfTackle ADHD Thanksgiving challenges
Family gatherings, changes in routine, and long meals. Thanksgiving can be tough for kids with ADHD. Here are steps you can take to reduce stress and make it more manageable.
Resources to support family engagement
There are variety of federal resources to support family engagement:
The ED-funded Center for Parent Information & Resources has tools to help providers and families collaborate to support children’s development and well-being.
Effective parent and family engagement builds strong family partnerships that can help children and families thrive. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)’ National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning has resources to support building partnerships with families, including videos on best practices to support family and community engagement.
Sensory Table Ideas
Early childhood teachers know that hands-on learning is essential. Sensory play encourages open-ended thinking, language development, collaboration, and builds fine motor skills. Sensory materials are magically both engaging and calming.
The great thing about sensory tables and bins is that reinventing the wheel is not required. Tried-and-true materials like sand, beans, rice, and water will always delight children. But, since mixing it up is fun, too, we’ve gathered some of our favorite next-level sensory play ideas.
Click on the picture to the right to access the ideas from We Are Teachers.
Vision Resources
The Health and Human Services- (HHS-) funded National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health developed a variety of resources to support young children. Resources include tools for children enrolled in:
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health
The ED-funded Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (ECTA) has a new topic page on Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) and a briefing paper, Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health and Early Intervention (Part C),that details policies and practices for supporting the social and emotional development and mental health of infants and toddlers in the context of parent-child relationships. The briefing paper, which was developed in collaboration with a number of national partner organizations, is available to read online and download.
Early Childhood Video Library
The ED-funded Early Childhood Personnel Center (ECPC) assists States with developing, implementing, and evaluating an integrated and comprehensive system of personnel development for the early childhood workforce so that young children with disabilities and their families receive effective early childhood intervention. ECPC has developed a curated video library that may be used in early childhood intervention preservice courses or in-service training. Topics include Assessment, Development, Families, Interactions, Interventions, and Instruction, Professionalism, Teaming.
The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)'s Partner Solutions Directory is an online resource for special education products, services, and programming support!
Search for a topic and quickly receive a list of partners who provide products, services, or programming supporting your work and career.*
STEMIE Newsletter (June 2022)
The most recent newsletter from STEMIE includes A Guide to Addressing STEM Myths, a blog post on the Intersectionality of Disability, Race, and Gender in STEM, a FREE article from Young Exceptional Children (Supporting Language Acquisition and Peer Interaction Through Guided Play in a Multilingual Classroom by Drs. Christina Bohr and Serra Acar), and more! Read the full newsletter here.
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health
As part of their Infant/Toddler Care Learning Suite, Health and Human Service’s (HHS) Child Care Technical Assistance Network has information on infant and early childhood mental health available in English and Spanish. The information is based on three parts of the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) definition. This includes forming close and secure relationships, exploring the environment and learning and experiencing, managing and expressing emotions. The information can be used in a variety of child care settings.
Due to supply chain issues and the recent recall of several infant formula products, infant formula shortages have been reported throughout the United States. The U.S. government and other partners are working toward ensuring infant formula is safe and available for families across the country. This resource page from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has information on how to safely locate infant formula for your child.
Managing the needs of a child with a food allergy can be a complicated task. Since some allergic reactions can be severe and even life-threatening, it’s important for caregivers to be prepared and proactive. In this guide you’ll find resources related to the identification, prevention, and treatment of allergic reactions to food.
Mud Day is June 29th,
how will you be celebrating?
For many of us, when asked to recall favorite childhood memories, mud puddles and mud pies are at the top of the list. The sensory richness and open-ended play that young children experience with mud are the stuff that fabulous childhood memories are made of! With a simple touch, mud transforms; in texture, shape, and sometimes color. Activities Link
Public Service Loan Forgiveness for the ECE Workforce
The Department and the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Early Childhood Development hosted a webinar on the flexibilities offered through the Limited Public Service Loan Forgiveness Waiver and the ways in which the early care and education workforce can take advantage of this time-limited opportunity.
NEW ECTA Resources on Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH)
ECTA is excited to share their new topic page on Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH), and a Briefing Paper: Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health and Early Intervention (Part C), which details policies and practices for supporting the social and emotional development and mental health of infants and toddlers in the context of parent-child relationships. Additionally, ECTA is hosting a two-session webinar series that will address potential IECMH policies and practices to promote the social-emotional development and mental health of infants and toddlers in the context of relationships. Learn more about the resources and register for the webinars here.
Supporting Home Visitors
Home visitors provide important services. By implementing prevention strategies, home visitors, children, and families can be protected from diseases that can be spread from person to person, such as COVID-19, flu, colds, and other respiratory or gastrointestinal illnesses. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has information on ways home visitors can protect clients and themselves during home visits.
Produced in partnership with Beth Cannon Speaks, this free ebook offers an in-depth look at the #1 issue facing childcare owners and operators: hiring and retention. Take a deep dive into strategies to build your center branding so that you can find and keep the best people for your organization!
“Federal Funding Guidance for Ohio's Dyslexia Support Laws”
This document has guidance for districts and schools to use federal Title funds, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Part B School-aged Special Education funds (ages 3-21) and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Part B Early Childhood Special Education funds (ages 3-5) to implement Ohio’s Dyslexia Support laws. For general questions about Ohio’s Dyslexia Support Laws, contact Dyslexia@education.ohio.gov.
Engaging Fathers
The HHS-funded National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NRFC) provides a variety of tools and resources to encourage and strengthen fathers and families. Some resources are available in Spanish. Its #Dadication campaign includes a series of videos to encourage fathers to spend time with their children.
Video helps families find high-quality early learning programs
The Broadcast Educational Media Commission, the Department and WPTO produced this video to help families find the best early learning programs for their children. This short video covers topics like questions to ask early learning providers and accessing Ohio’s Step Up To Quality child care rating system.
Strengthen Child-find Systems
The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), with the collaboration and support of the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (ECTA) and Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data Systems (DaSy) developed a self-assessment tool to help LEAs strengthen their child-find system. The goal is to ensure that children eligible for special education and related services are referred and receive services. This toolkit can also be used by state educational agencies (SEAs) to look across LEAs to support understanding and document their work on child-find regulations, identify best practices, and improve the efficiency of their child-find efforts. ECTA’s Part C Child Find Self-Assessment (CFSA) is also available.
Resources for Military Families
Military families often face unique challenges. The OSEP-funded Center for Parent Information and Resources has a landing page with information to support military families managing issues in special education. The OSEP-funded Branch Military Parent Technical Assistance Center also has numerous resources for families, including information to support military families receiving early intervention services. Additional resources and information from the United States Department of Defense are also available.
Respite-Summer-Programs-for-Families-with-Special-Needs-2022-Online.pdf
ODE School Wellness Toolkits
Resources for all teachers to use: building relationships, student calming and focusing strategies, staff self-care, trauma informed practices, classroom management and signs of mental health crisis