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Early
Education and Child Care in Action
E-News for Health Professionals
Section Survey Resources
I counsel parents about finding a child care program or deciding on the best child care arrangement for their child. What resources can I tell them about?
What resources do you have that would help me raise awareness of the importance of maximizing health promotion during the early childhood period?
Videos | Developmental Timeline | Fact Sheets | Publications
I consult with or serve as a medical advisor to a child care program or I mentor/supervise a child care health consultant. What resources are available?
DVD Training Tool | Infectious Diseases Manual | State Information
National Consultation Registry
I want to get more involved in my AAP State Chapter efforts regarding early education and child care. How can I do this?
AAP Policy Statement | State Websites | Chapter Contacts |
State Regulations
I make presentations on Early Education and Child Care topics on a regular basis. Do you have PowerPoint Presentations and handouts that I can modify for my own use?
PowerPoints | Handouts | Tools for CCHCs | Policy statements | Research findings
Where can I find relevant research articles on quality early education and child care?
Research Articles | Literature Reviews | Websites
Where can I learn about funding opportunities to support my early education and child care efforts?
2 AAP Webpages to Bookmark
I counsel parents about finding a child care program or deciding on the best child care arrangement for their child. What resources can I tell them about?
Is This the Right Place for My Child? 38 Research-based Indicators for High-Quality Care
- A comprehensive 24-page booklet published by the National Association for Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies that describes the research and rationale behind select indicators of high-quality child care.
- A 2-page checklist of questions you can use to evaluate child care programs. All of the questions are based on research about what is important to your child’s health, safety, and development. Take a copy of this checklist to each child care program you choose to visit!
Healthy Kids, Healthy Care –This comprehensive website (which AAP members helped to develop) was created for parents with children in child care. Based on Caring for Our Children, this website provides information on a variety of child care health and safety topics as well as strategies and resources to help you talk with your child’s caregivers about how to improve health and safety practices.
Find Accredited Child Care Programs –The National Association for the Education of Young Children coordinates a system to accredit child care centers (which are typically of higher quality than those programs that are not accredited). You can search on this website by zip code and find licensed and accredited child care centers in your area.
Find Accredited Family Child Care Homes –The National Association for Family Child Care offers accreditation for family child care homes. This website provides a way for you to determine the distance between your home and the nearest accredited family child care home. The NAFCC does not share the address of these homes online, but you can call your local Child Care Resource and Referral Agency for this information if you are seeking accredited family child care.
Find the Closest Child Care Resource and Referral Agency –The Child Care Aware website allows you to search by zip code and find the closest Child Care Resource and Referral Agency. These agencies are an excellent source of information and can help you find a licensed child care center or family child care home that can best meet the needs of your child and family. This website also includes 5 Steps to Choosing Care, and online tools to assess the average cost of child care in your area and help you decide whether you should return to work or stay at home.
What resources do you have that would help me raise awareness of the importance of maximizing health promotion during the early childhood period?
Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Performance Standards, Guidelines for Out-of-Home Child Care Programs, 2nd Edition
This manual contains national health and safety recommendations and guidelines for children in family-and center-based child care programs. This reference is considered to include the approved “AAP policies” on child care health and safety.
Talaris Research Institute
The Talaris Research Institute provides 1-minute videos on best parenting practices, and an electronic developmental milestones timeline that shows what's typical regarding your child's age and development.
National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (NSCDC)
The NSCDC was created to extend the work that culminated in the publication of From Neurons to Neighborhoods (2000 ). The goal of the Council is to enhance the early development of children through the implementation of effective public and private policies and programs. Based on its belief in the value of sound and accurate science as a foundation for enlightened action, the Council will serve as a credible knowledge broker by translating research findings for multiple audiences and identifying evidence-based strategies to guide social policies, professional services, and parenting practices.
Zero to Three
This website offers information for those interested in the healthy development of young children, birth to three. The site includes information on brain development, learning during everyday routines, parenting tips, professional journal articles, policy briefs, as well as a growing list of Spanish materials. The site also includes an Infant Mental Health Resource Center that describes what infant mental health (IMH) is and provides a list of resources and training programs related to this topic.
California Childcare Health Program
This child care healthy and safety website provides a wealth of resources (English and Spanish) tailored to families including fact sheets on health and safety which can be download free or ordered for a minimal fee.
ECELS - Healthy Child Care PA
The Early Childhood Education Linkage System website provides fact sheets, health professional consultation, training, and technical assistance to improve early childhood education programs in the Commonwealth.
National Center for Children and Poverty (NCCP)
The NCCP is the nation’s leading public policy center dedicated to promoting the economic security, health, and well-being of America’s low-income families and children. Here you can look up state profiles, state demographics, policies, and publications that address early childhood.
I consult with or serve as a medical advisor to a child care program or I mentor/supervise a child care health consultant. What resources are available?
Health and Safety Consultation in Child Care DVD – This is an excellent training tool for nurses and other health professionals who want to learn more about how they can support Head Start, Early Head Start, or other child care programs and help them improve the health and well being of the children in their care. This interactive and multimedia training tool includes the complete text of Caring for Our Children, information on other key national resources, suggestions for making observations, strategies for training child care staff, and ways to work with programs to develop a health and safety improvement plan. This key resource was developed by the Pennsylvania AAP Chapter, and CME/CEU credits are available!
Managing Infectious Diseases in Child Care and Schools: A Quick Reference Guide Incorporating content from Caring for Our Children and the AAP Red Book®, and color images from the Visual Red Book on CD-ROM, this manual offers information and materials to help parents, caregivers/teachers, and health professionals “get on the same page” to prevent, identify, and respond to the most common childhood infectious diseases. Reference sheets for 40 infectious diseases and conditions, a symptoms chart, and information on when mildly ill children can remain in care or should be sent home. We have a limited number of copies that we can offer free of charge. To obtain one, please email childcare@aap.org and tell us how you plan to use it. Free copies will be mailed to the the first 20 individuals who respond.
If child care providers or parents want a quick review of what the AAP recommends, point them towards this webpage.
Healthy Child Care Consultant Network Support Center (NSC) – The NSC is a new partner organization funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau to strengthen statewide networks of child care health consultants (CCHCS). Each state has its own system for supporting CCHCS, and this site offers state profiles, a national registry of CCHCs, and many online resources (including a online version of a booklet that provides a comprehensive summary of the literature on child care health consultation, which you received when you completed the survey).
I want to get more involved in my AAP State Chapter efforts regarding early education and child care. How can I do this?
Review the recommendations for pediatricians in the AAP policy statement Quality Early Education and Child Care From Birth to Kindergarten.
http://www.healthychildcare.org/pdf/QualityPolicy.pdf
State Healthy Child Care America Program Web Sites
This website provides you with information about what Healthy Child Care America activities are occurring in your state. You can also visit other Healthy Child Care America websites to get ideas about how to improve the health and safety of child care in your state.
The AAP early education and child care staff have identified AAP Chapter Child Care Contacts in most state chapters. These Chapter Contacts would very much appreciate your support and assistance. Find out who your Chapter Contact is here.
Use the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education website to compare the AAP national recommendations/guidelines (which can be found in Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Performance Standards, Guidelines for Out-of-Home Child Care Programs) against your state child care regulations to identify areas for improvement. This information can be found online here.
I make presentations on Early Education and Child Care topics on a regular basis. Do you have PowerPoint Presentations and handouts that I can modify for my own use?
Yes, the Section’s Online Presenter’s Forum is here.
Many resources can be found on the state Healthy Child Care America Websites here.
Where can I find relevant research articles on quality early education and child care?
Research articles written by colleagues can be found here.
The Influence of Child Care Health Consultants in Promoting Children’s Health and Well-being: A Report on Selected Resources is a summary of the literature regarding child care health consultation.
Child Care and Early Education Research Connections
Research Connections offers a comprehensive and easily searchable collection of more than 10,000 resources from the many disciplines related to child care and early education. Find the most current reports, papers, fact sheets, briefs, executive summaries, datasets, and instruments & measures.
Where can I learn about funding opportunities to support my early education and child care efforts?
The AAP National Center on Medical Home Initiatives for Children with Special Needs provides information on a variety of funding opportunities, as well as links to other funding key contacts and resources. These are relevant for every project and don’t simply focus on only children with special needs.
The AAP Division of Community-based Initiatives provides information on AAP and other funding opportunities for AAP members and others on a monthly basis. Although there is some duplication between these two webpages, it's important to check both often!
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