Helping children to create routines within their daily life is one of the best ways to teach confidence, self-discipline and cooperation—skills that later lead to the development of strong coping mechanisms. Such skills enable children to more easily navigate unexpected changes and adjust to unfamiliar environments.

• Visit the School or Center. Children act out stresses from separation anxiety in a number of different ways. One way to reduce separation anxiety is to introduce them, in advance, to the school or child care center they will attend. If the school or center allows for pre-school year visits, take advantage to get your child acclimated. It’s also helpful to establish the route that you will use to get to the classroom each day and to repeat it a couple of times with whatever mode of transportation you will use. If you can walk to the center, walk the route several times so that that the child becomes familiar with it. Even with infants, repeating this route while they are in their stroller can help them to become familiar with scenery that will eventually signal that they are on their way to a safe place.
• Establish a Goodbye Ritual. Goodbye rituals in the classroom at the start of the day play an important role in making a child feel safe, and will lessen the opportunity for nervousness and panic to arise when the parent leaves for the day. When you bring your child to school or child care center, give yourself enough time to pick out a book to read with your child, or sit down with them while they draw a picture. Once it is time to leave, talk to the child in an energetic tone about what’s in store for that day. Emphasize that you will be back to pick them up in the afternoon, and will be excited to hear about the day at school.
• Say Goodbye. Never leave without saying goodbye. Sneaking away only heightens your child’s worry that they cannot trust you or trust in your return.
• Bring a Token From Home. Send your child to school with something that connects them to home and family, such as a photograph or a favorite toy. Having this reminder close-at-hand can help to calm children down if they become upset or experience a moment of panic during the day.
• Volunteer in the Classroom When You Can. Spending time in your child’s classroom as a volunteer has many advantages. You can learn more about your child’s teachers and the learning styles they apply in the classroom and develop a more meaningful relationship with them. A child who sees their parent interacting in their classroom with their peers will feel safe and welcome in that setting. Children are much more likely to feel secure in an environment where they know their parents are safe and welcomed, too.
• Practice Calming Exercises With Your Child. If children have a particularly difficult time adjusting to their new environment in the first weeks of the year, there are several calming exercises that you can practice with them. This is a great way to teach children how to take control of their own emotions and calm down so that they are ready and prepared to take on the day.

Voices from the Field: Building Policies and Practices That Strengthen Home Visiting

The last several years have only underscored the critical role that home visitors play in their work with families, programs, communities, and states. And yet, the home visiting workforce has reached a recruitment, retention, and well-being crisis point. Addressing workforce well-being relies on several factors and must include the voices of home visitors when making decisions that affect them. This plenary session will open with hearing stories from home visitors in the field as they discuss the successes and challenges they face in their work. The session will also address key areas of transformation focused on upstream systems and policy issues that impact home visitors, programs, and ultimately families.

Las voces del terreno: Creación de políticas y prácticas que fortalezcan las visitas a domicilio

Los últimos años no han hecho más que subrayar el papel fundamental que desempeñan los visitantes a domicilio en su labor con las familias, los programas, las comunidades y los estados. Sin embargo, la fuerza laboral de las visitas a domicilio ha alcanzado un punto de crisis en cuanto al reclutamiento, la retención y el bienestar. Abordar el bienestar de la fuerza laboral depende de varios factores y debe incluir las voces de los visitantes a domicilio a la hora de tomar decisiones que les afecten. Esta sesión plenaria iniciará escuchando relatos de visitantes a domicilio que trabajan en el campo mientras hablan de los éxitos y los retos a los que se enfrentan en su trabajo. La sesión también abordará las áreas clave de transformación centradas en los sistemas ascendentes y las cuestiones normativas que afectan a los visitantes a domicilio, a los programas y, en última instancia, a las familias.

Disaggregated Data: An Honest Conversation

There are varying opinions on disaggregated data’s function, purpose, and use. Methods for collecting data and mechanisms for protecting family information can create ethical challenges and practical barriers. This plenary provides an opportunity for a panel discussion to weigh the benefits and cautions of collecting disaggregated data, what systems changes would need to occur for it to be collected ethically and safely, and what role communities and families have in determining what data is collected and how it is used.

Datos desagregados: Una conversación franca

Existen diversas opiniones sobre la función, el propósito y el uso de los datos desagregados. Los métodos de recopilación de datos y los mecanismos de protección de la información familiar pueden crear retos éticos y barreras prácticas. Esta sesión plenaria ofrece la oportunidad de realizar una mesa redonda para sopesar las ventajas y las precauciones que supone la recopilación de datos desagregados, qué cambios tendrían que producirse en los sistemas para que pudiera realizarse de forma ética y segura, y qué papel tienen las comunidades y las familias a la hora de determinar qué datos se recopilan y cómo se utilizan.

New Tools for Listening and Supporting Households with Young Children

This plenary focuses on the need for new tools to facilitate early childhood practice, policy and advocacy in a world of rapid change and uncertainty. We will present information about the RAPID survey platform, which since early 2020 has been elevating the voices of parents with young children and the early childhood workforce about their experiences, strengths and needs. And present information about the FIND program, an evidence-based approach that employs video modeling and coaching to support practitioners, early childhood educators and parents. These 2 tools are designed to be complementary to existing programmatic and policy efforts, and to provide a context for continuous improvement of services to young children, parents and other adults in their lives.

Nuevas herramientas para escuchar y apoyar a hogares con niños pequeños (y a otros adultos en sus vidas)

Esta presentación se centra en la necesidad de nuevas herramientas para facilitar la práctica, la política y la defensa de la primera infancia en un mundo de rápidos cambios e incertidumbre. Estas herramientas son especialmente necesarias para configurar las visitas a domicilio y los servicios comunitarios relacionados con la primera infancia. Presentaremos información sobre la plataforma de encuestas RAPID, que desde principios de 2020 ha estado elevando las voces de los padres con niños pequeños y del personal de la primera infancia sobre sus experiencias, puntos fuertes y necesidades. También presentaremos información sobre el programa FIND, un enfoque basado en las pruebas que emplea el modelado en vídeo y el coaching para apoyar a los profesionales, a los educadores de la primera infancia y a los padres. Estas 2 herramientas están diseñadas para ser complementarias a los esfuerzos programáticos y de políticas existentes, y para proporcionar un contexto para la mejora continua de los servicios a los niños pequeños, los padres y otros adultos en sus vidas.

Messaging Toolkit

Successfully scaling UNSS to additional Illinois communities, and eventually statewide, requires cohesive messaging to build awareness of UNSS interventions, the opportunity and necessity to leverage dedicated funding streams to sustain these systems, and the connection between UNSS expansion and to larger state vision for Illinois children and families.

The resources contained in this toolkit are intended to support advocates, state systems leaders, UNSS program leaders, other family-facing providers, and lawmaker champions in communicating the story of UNSS, including explaining why these services are critically important to the future well-being of Illinois families and children. This toolkit is model-agnostic; it aims to speak generally about UNSS as an approach rather than focusing on particular programs or models, recognizing that individual communities will need flexibility to choose and implement models that fit their particular needs. In building this toolkit, Start Early hopes that the resources can serve as a jumping-off point for various stakeholders to build upon the messages and materials within for outreach with additional audiences.

• Read–Familiarize yourself with the general framing of UNSS
• Add–Adapt and make additions that speak to your particular audience or perspective
• Share–Share these general materials alongside more detailed or nuanced messaging

Team & Collaborators

This report was prepared thanks to many individuals and organizations that generously provided time and expertise, research, consultation and other supports. Special thanks to: Brian Rolling, Vincent Alvarez, Claudia Valencia, Tajae Sutton, Samantha Price, Kali Huber, Claire Lankford, Dr. Shelly Shallat, Dr. Mofesola Modupe, Family Connects International, the Chicago Department of Public Health, EverThrive Illinois, and the Illinois Department of Human Services.

Special thanks to: This toolkit and the messaging materials contained within were prepared with generous support from the Steans Family Foundation.

Here are 4 simple activity ideas to help teach your child about emotions:

1. Build the Word Bank
   A simple way to start building your child’s word bank around feelings is to start with two very common words young children are familiar with: “good” and “bad.” Children are used to using one of these words to explain emotions, actions or even a friend’s personality, “My friend Matt was a bad boy at school today.” Every time your child uses “good” or “bad” in a place where they could use a different, more descriptive word, offer a few suggestions for what they may actually be describing. “When you said Matt was a “bad” boy at school, why was that? Do you think he was sad, or maybe angry?” Coax them to explain the situation and help them identify the word they were looking for. As your child begins to absorb new emotion words, they will be better equipped to explain to you how they feel, and also to sense those same feelings in others.
2. Connect Actions to Feelings
   To begin the process of learning how to explain feelings, it’s helpful for little ones to connect that actions cause us to have these feelings. In the teaching moment video below, children in an Educare classroom are getting ready for a school play. The teacher is helping them identify that because they are about to go on stage, they may be feeling “nervous.” She is getting them used to the idea that actions cause feelings, which we all have. This will help them adjust using their words to describe a situation like “when X happens, I feel Y.”

3. Act on Feelings
   Give your child an easy-to-understand action they can do when they feel a specific emotion. This will give them an age-appropriate outlet to address their feelings, and get them used to the thought of dealing with an emotion. Having this outlet they can regularly use to act on their emotions will pave the way for dealing with more complicated feelings and situations as they get older. For example, in the previous video, the teacher offers children who are nervous about the upcoming play an outlet for their emotions. She asks each child to walk to the center of the circle where a large pot is sitting. One by one each child comes to the pot and shakes off their “nervous feelings” into the pot, where the nerves will stay for good. This is a way for the youngsters to see that everyone feels emotions like they do, and that there is a way to deal with them.
4. Use Specific, Open-Ended Questions
   Start getting your child accustomed to talking about their emotions by asking about an exact moment. If your little one had just been in a play, instead of asking “did you like the play?” ask them how they felt before/during/after a specific moment, “Describe how you felt as you were about to say your lines?” or “What were you thinking after you got off of stage?” For a child who can name their emotions well, begin bringing up questions that help them to identify what other people (friends, teachers, etc.) may have felt during that time so they can begin to pay attention to other people and their feelings. The more they learn about being attentive to their own emotions and others, the more they will be able to understand that emotions are a daily part of life.

Some young children are innately interested in: learning how things work, building things and taking things apart. But all children can be enticed into STEM/STEAM learning through whatever they’re already interested in. Both STEM and STEAM support play, wonder and curiosity; but STEAM includes an art component that allows children to create and design with intention. STEM and STEAM encourage children to solve problems by using inquiry and investigation.

Since young children tend to ask lots of questions, you can introduce STEM/STEAM basics by following these simple “CHIA” steps:

• Curiosity: “So glad you asked!”
• Hypothesis: “Why don’t you make a guess?”
• Investigation: “Let’s look into it!”
• Analysis: “Why do you think that happened?”

Before beginning any activity with your toddler, ask them what they think is going to happen. Then ask why they think that. They’ve just created a hypothesis and given their logic for that hypothesis—the foundation of all scientific exploration. By then creating experiments with your toddler and talking about what you observe, you’re setting them up to plan, brainstorm, build, and solve problems exactly like scientists and engineers do.

Ideas for You and Your Child:

1. Build a ramp for toy cars to roll down. Have your toddler race two cars down the ramp. Ask them to predict which one will get to the bottom first. Then have them play with how to make the cars faster or slower. For example, if you put a small stone on the car, does it make it go faster? Buildable toys provide great opportunities for experimentation. What happens to the speed when your toddler makes the car bigger, heavier, or longer? This is experimentation, and it’s fun!
2. When you go for a walk, you can guide the conversation, or let your child come up with their own experiments. If you see an animal, play with how softly you can talk before the animal notices you. Or ask your child why the squirrels race around the tree. Right answers are not the goal—this is about asking questions and predicting the answer.

Remember that it’s okay for both you and your child to answer “I don’t know” to any question. It’s asking the question that’s important because that is where all science begins.

STEAM At-Home Activity: Building Structures

While at home, parents can introduce building structures with their children. The materials for this activity consist of wide popsicle sticks, clear plastic drinking cups and small cube blocks. Parents can encourage their child to build a structure while engaging in conversation about how many cups will it take to build the structure. What will happen if you use fewer cups and more popsicle sticks? How high can you build? The children can learn about balance, height, measurement and a host of wonderful things. This at-home activity needs little to no planning, but a readiness to think outside of the box.

Don’t underestimate the incredible thinking skills that young children have. With just a playful shift in word choice, we can allow for a dramatic shift in getting our babies ready for a STEM/STEAM education!