Act Early Network News, Winter 2019 Issue

In February 2018 Puerto Rico (PR) was given the opportunity to have a Learn the Signs. Act Early Ambassador, Nancy Nieves-Muñoz, from the Division of Children with Special Medical Needs (DCSMN) of the PR Department of Health (PRDH). For the past 3 years, she has worked with the DCSMN to promote early identification of children with autism spectrum disorders. Early in 2016, in response to the Zika epidemic, the PRDH established, in coordination with the CDC, the Zika Active Pregnancy Surveillance System to monitor outcomes of women with laboratory evidence of possible Zika virus infection during pregnancy and of their infants until 3 years of age. This priority presented Nancy with the opportunity to include, in her Act Early Ambassador workplan, a goal to support developmental monitoring with families of infants and toddlers born to mothers with laboratory evidence of possible Zika infection during pregnancy that visit the Children with Special Health Care Needs Program (CSHCN) at the Regional Pediatric Centers. Training was provided on the use of LTSAE materials to Family Participation and Support Advocates, and Service Coordinators of the seven CSHCN Program Regional Pediatric Centers. This staff ordered materials that are being shared with families that visit our Centers. They have shared that the materials provide them with “talking points to approach and support families”. The CDC materials in Spanish have provided additional tools to help families be more involved during the developmental monitoring that staff at Pediatric Centers provide for their child.

A unique, award-winning collaboration in Florida among the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschoolers and Youngsters (HIPPY) program, Gracepoint, and the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD) at the University of South Florida is demonstrating the enormous impact collaborative support services can have on families with young children diagnosed with autism. HIPPY Home Visitors deliver evidenced-based curriculum materials and instructional support weekly to parents who carry out the educational activities with their children, aged 3-5. Some families in need of special assistance are referred to Gracepoint, a mental health agency, that offer resources and case management. CARD partners with HIPPY to offer specific strategies and tools to increase accessibility to the curriculum. Since the collaboration began, 34 children diagnosed with autism participated in this pilot project. Using a standardized test of school readiness, a formal early literacy skills test, the curriculum-aligned HIPPY Skills Test, weekly check-ins, and survey data, results show strong behavioral and academic improvement. All children’s scores improved on the three academic measures. Respondents to pre- and post-intervention surveys include ten families with children who demonstrated difficult behaviors and limited verbal language. At the time of post-intervention, eight of ten children were able to express their wants and needs using words or full sentences, and the other 2 of 10 required a visual system for communication. Parents reported their children became more cooperative with activities, learned how to focus longer on learning activities, engaged in reading books more often, and demonstrated improved socialization skills with adults and peers. Please contact Dr. Karen Berkman for additional information.

Act Early Ambassadors to the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia "Learn the Signs. Act Early.” Program Yetta Myrick, SunYoung Ahn, and Deana Buck took a collaborative approach to expand the impact of the LTSAE campaign in the District of Columbia and its two neighboring states. The three Ambassadors developed a common Ambassador Goals, and supported each other to identify new state stakeholders in developmental monitoring. As their first joint activity, hosted their first regional webinar “Engaging Leaders in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia” on Thursday, October 25, 2018 to discuss how and why to use "Learn the Signs. Act Early." materials within their states. Katie Green, Health Communication Specialist from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, participated in the webinar to share ideas for how states can use the LTSAE resources to improve early identification of developmental delays and disabilities and the value of integrating developmental monitoring with “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” messages and materials into local communities and statewide systems that serve families with young children. Webinar participants represented various early childhood organizations from DC, Maryland and Virginia, including, IDEA Part C and Section 619, State T&TA, State Department of Education, Childcare Resource and Referral Network, Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN), Department of Health, and ChildSavers. They shared ideas about how they were currently using the LTSAE materials and how they might use LTSAE in their state or district in the future. The three Act Early Ambassadors are committed to continue supporting their respective state stakeholders in engaging families in developmental monitoring. They will also continue collaborating with each other to develop and accomplish additional joint goals. 

NICHQ recently published an Insight on family partnership with "Five Strategies for Engaging Family Partners". New Jersey's Act Early Ambassador, Deepa Srinivasavaradan, is featured in the section on empowering family voices. 

The Ounce of Prevention Fund, in partnership with UChicago Consortium, developed and validated the Early Education Essentials™ surveys to provide the field with reliable and valid measurement of organizational conditions. In this paper, they describe those strong organizational contexts and how they empowered leaders, teachers and families to aspire to and realize higher-quality practices and better outcomes for young children.

This new website contains tools and resources for professionals working to advance prenatal-to-three policies in states, communities and nationally. The site includes state and community-based data on infants, toddlers and their families, guidance on building and executing PN-3 plans, information on measuring impact, research-based messaging to garner support for investments, and information about work happening around the country so that decision makers and advocates can connect with each other.

The Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation-Strong Start (MIHOPE-Strong Start) was launched in 2012 to test whether evidence-based home visiting provided during pregnancy improves birth outcomes, prenatal health, and health care use in infancy. Specifically, the MIHOPE-Strong Start analysis includes 2,900 families across 66 local HFA and NFP home visiting programs in 17 states. The Administration for Children and Families partnered with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Health Resources and Services Administration to sponsor MIHOPE-Strong Start. MDRC conducted the evaluation in collaboration with James Bell Associates, Johns Hopkins University, Mathematica Policy Research, and New York University. This report presents final implementation and impact results from the study.