News from the Act Early Network
Rhode Island's "Learn the Signs. Act Early." Initiatives
Act Early Ambassador to RI, Stacey Aguiar, has been busy working with stakeholders to help bring awareness to developmental milestones, delays and disabilities. Current initiatives include:
The Health Equity Connections Newsletter is sent on a monthly basis to community partners and members of professional boards. "Learn the Signs. Act Early." (LTSAE) was incorporated into the July 2014 issue.
Women, Infant and Children (WIC) nutritionists meet on a quarterly basis to receive required trainings. At the August meeting, Stacey presented LTSAE. All nutritionists will now be using LTSAE resources. In addition, they were excited about completing the upcoming “Watch Me!” training.
A “Back to School” event took place on August 16th at seven sites throughout the state. Families learned more about available programs and resources. LTSAE sample materials were available and distributed at each site.
First Connections is a home visiting program that supports families and their children during the early years of childhood development by giving them the information and services they need to be as healthy and successful as possible. LTSAE milestones are currently being incorporated into the new First Connections brochure.
Contact Stacey with questions or for more information about RI's LTSAE initiatives.
Mississippi’s Autism Demonstration School: A Service Provision and Training Resource
The University of Southern Mississippi's Autism Project is a university-based program funded by the Mississippi Department of Education-Office of Special Education. Through the project, university personnel conduct various trainings that are designed to teach school personnel and parents how to design and implement appropriate 
school-based programs for students with autism. A noteworthy component of the project is its Autism Demonstration School. The school serves approximately 30 students with autism, ages 3-9, and is housed in the Long Beach School District - a public school district that is located near one of the university's coastal locations in Long Beach, Mississippi. The school is open to any student with autism in Mississippi. It serves a dual purpose as it affords students with autism an opportunity to receive direct services while providing various professionals opportunities to get hands-on experience regarding programming for these students. More information about the project can be found at www.usm.edu/gulfcoast/autism/.
Montana and Autism: Next Steps
Montana is fertile ground for growth of services and support for children with ASD and other developmental disabilities, and their families. Building on the foundation set by Montana’s Act Early Ambassador, Ann Garfinkle, Montana's Act Early State Systems Grant team is regularly convening key stakeholders from across the state to develop a state plan to meet the needs of one of the largest and least populated states in the nation. In May, more than 20 people gathered to identify current trends and establish key focus areas for the development of a state plan. Participants included representatives of families, physicians, related services, developmental disability providers, Title V, children’s mental health, special education, early childhood and universities. Together, they developed a plan framework and agreed to meet in September to share resources and engage in a constructive dialogue about next steps. The May 2014 event resulted in several subsequent meetings between state agencies, universities and medical providers. Cross-organization training and training to rural/frontier community providers is a positive initial outcome of this initiative. Within the next year, partners will have access to shared information resources and will be engaged in a statewide implementation of the M-CHAT.
Northeast Regional Conference
The Act Early Ambassadors from the Northeast states (Stacey Aguiar, RI;
Jen Doris, NH; Elaine Gabovitch, MA; Ann Gionet, CT; Deepa Srinivasavardadan, NJ; Janet Kilburn, VT), along with Deborah Rooks, ME, are working to recreate the Act Early Regional Summit (Region 1) that took place in Rhode Island, 2010. The focus of the conference will be on developmental screening and referral/response to referral. The main goal of the conference is to learn about regional approaches to screening as models for consideration. The conference will be held in Connecticut in April or May, 2015.
The team has met twice to discuss conference logistics and will continue to meet on a monthly basis. Currently, the team is working on identifying funding opportunities, keynote speakers and participants to attend the conference.
One of the lessons learned by the team thus far is that identifying funding opportunities early on is imperative. Without a clear idea of how much funding is available, the team will not be able to identify a key note speaker, number of participants, venue and etc. If you have any suggestions for funding opportunities or would like more information, please contact any one of the members of the planning committee.
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