Inclusion Matters

Keeping children safe while they are playing in their early childhood setting is key to quality care.  Listen as we welcome Sarah Hawley, Child Care Health Consultant and Public Health Nurse.  She gives essential tips to consider when you are preparing and maintaining your play spaces and shares strategies to lessen injuries, keep children and staff safe, and provide positive outdoor or indoor large muscle play.

Our guest in this episode of the Inclusion Matters podcast is Alyssa Mason, Pediatric Occupational Therapist from M Health Fairview. She joins us to discuss the sensory systems and sensory needs of young children in our care. This first conversation talks us through "a day in the life of a preschooler in child care" from a sensory needs perspective.

Our guest, Public Health Nurse Sarah Hawley from Minnesota Child Care Health Consultants, joins Inclusion Matters for another episode, this time focusing on safe and healthy naptime routines, policies, and practices.  Sleep is essential for overall good health of the child and the whole family.  Listen and gain resources and tools to support quality sleep for young children while in child care.

In this episode, our guest Danielle Hayden, Supervisor of Early Childhood Special Education at the Minnesota Department of Education joins us to provide an overview of the state of the state as it relates to early intervention across Minnesota in post-Covid realities.   

In this episode (in Somali) Bureeqo Dahir, CICC Coach, and special guest Marian Hassan discuss the importance of understanding Mental Health and the need for communication and information sharing around this important topic.  They also explain how Mental Health affects every aspect of our lives- emotional, psychological, and social well-being; how we feel, think, behave, and relate to others.

Our guest Sarah Hawley of Minnesota Child Care Health Consultants is back again for another episode to support healthy child care settings.  Priscilla Weigel and Sarah discuss the common illnesses that require exclusion from child care settings and why.  Policies and communication with families and staff are also discussed as well as illness that does not require exclusion. 

Join us for this special episode of Inclusion Matters as we talk with Margaret Mahowld, Director of Calvary Child Care.  She shares her path to hope in the staffing crisis detailing her step by step plan to keep her child care setting open and able to continue to support families.

Public Health Nurse Sarah Hawley, from Minnesota Child Care Health Consultants talks with us about ways to keep the whole team healthy in a child care setting. Staff health directly effects the health of children and their families.  Sarah talks with us about ways we can build a healthy lifestyle and also keep germs at bay in the workplace and keep those germs from spreading to families.

Inclusion Matters hosts a conversation with Faith Kidder, a Child Health Consultant from the Child and Teen Checkups (C&TC) Team at the Minnesota Department of Health.  Faith leads us through a discussion about the importance of early screening for young children and the ways that Minnesota supports this process through many resources like Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT), a federal program to ensure the children who are eligible for Medical assistance receive appropriate timely preventive well child health care.

Our guest, Sarah Hawley, RN, BSN, PHN, shares the most recent updates to the precautions and expectations that child care settings need in place related to the current Covid status.  This episode covers an overview of the CDC’s CURRENT Operational Guidance to Support In-person Learning.   

Our guest Michele Kvikstad, Program Coordinator for Follow Along in Minnesota joins us to share about this wonderful free program for families.  Michele highlights the way the Follow Along Program helps support caregivers of infants and young children to track their child's development and let you know if your child is playing, talking, growing, moving, and behaving like other children the same age. Listen and learn more about this great free resource for families. https://www.health.state.mn.us/mnfap  

Podcast-kan waxaan kaga hadlaynaa sida waalidiinta/daryeelayaashu ay u bilaabi karaan inay caruurtooda wax ku baraan guriga, sida daqiiqad kasta oo ay la qaataan ubadku u tahay waqti waxbarid, waxqabadyada waalidiintu kula samayn karaan caruurtooda guriga, iyo dhammaan faa'iidooyinka korriinka ee baritaanka dhallaanka.  In this podcast we are discussing how parents or caregivers can start educating their little ones at home, how every moment spent with a child is a teaching moment, activities parents can do with their little ones at home, and over all developmental benefits teaching babies. 

Join us as we learn about Parent Aware from our guest, Katie Hoffman, Director of Quality Improvement at Child Care Aware of Minnesota.  We walk through the history, the principles, and the many benefits of becoming a Parent Aware Rated child care program. 

Public Health Nurse and owner of MN Child Care Health Consultants, Sarah Hawley, joins us on this episode to share ways early childhood professionals can create a “breastfeeding friendly” child care setting.  Sarah highlights the health benefits of breastfeeding and the ways that supporting this personal parent decision can enhance the overall setting.

Kim Woehl, one of our CICC Coaches and a former licensed family child care provider, joins this episode.  Kim has many useful insights as to how to meet the needs of many different children at various ages and stages in the family child care setting.  She shares strategies related to building a flexible yet consistent routine, and tip and tricks that calm chaos and meet varied needs.   

 In this episode, we host Anna Paulson, from Region 11 Help Me Grow as she shares the many ways Help Me Grow MN (HMGMN)  supports the healthy development of young children.  She highlights the way HMGMN enables parents, caregivers, professionals, and others to know when there are child development concerns and who to contact when these concerns arise.  An early start can change long-term outcomes for children.  Early services can mean fewer or no services later in life.  That is the goal.  Listen and learn more about the ways Help Me Grow MN meets that goal and supports those caring for young children along the path to success.  

In this episode, Priscilla Weigel talks with Infant & Early Childhood Director Lauren Moberg about work the MN Association for Children’s Mental Health has been doing as a part of the MN Preschool Development Grant to support professionals in early care and education in their working with young children and families who have experienced stress and trauma. To view the toolkit, click HERE  

Inclusion Matters welcomes back our friend Sarah Hawley of Minnesota Child Care Health Consultants to talk about helping children develop healthy eating patterns.  Sarah shares ways that early childhood educators can set a strong foundation for those in their care by providing opportunities to explore healthy foods and use positive modeling to encourage healthy choices.  She also shares wonderful free resources available to help you plan fun activities and share solid information with families.

Mloog peb ob tus qhua tshwj xeeb Nis Xyooj thiab Zaag Vaaj-Lis, sawv cev ntawm Hmong Early Childhood Coalition, piav txog txoj kev pab thiab kev txhawb nqa tsev neeg Hmoob uas muaj thiab saib xyuas cov menyuam yaus.  Nis thiab Zaag nkawv tau txhawb nqa lub coalition uas muaj lub hom phiaj los txhawb tsev neeg hmoob kom lawv nrhiav tau txoj kev rau cov menyuam Hmoob kom lawv tau kev kawm ntawv ntxov uas muaj nus nqis thiab zoo tshaj.   Listen as our special guests Nee Xiong and Zang Vang-Lee of the Hmong Early Childhood Coalition share information about this wonderful support and resource for Hmong families caring for young children.  Nee and Zang have been instrumental in building this important coalition whose mission is to empower Hmong families to seek opportunities to ensure that Hmong children have access to quality early childhood education.  

Bao Vang and Dao Xiong of the Hmong Early Childhood Coalition join Inclusion Matters to share information about the upcoming Hmong Early Childhood Summit.  In this episode, we learn about past summits and the purpose of these summits, which is to create awareness, educate and empower Hmong parents, caregivers, and community leaders to access resources and services for school readiness so that Hmong children can enter school ready to learn. Npaub Vaj thiab Ntaub Xyooj sawv cev ntawm Hmong Early Childhood Coalition koom nrog Inclusion Matters los qhia txog lub Hmong Early Childhood Summit uas yuav muaj tshwm sim tom ntej no.  Nyob rau hauv qhov lus tawm qhia no, peb kawm txog lub summit lossis lub rooj tawm tswv yim txoj kev qhia thiab kev pab yav tas los.  Tsis tas li ntawd, peb yuav kawm ntxiv txog lub hom phiaj uas yog los tsim kom muaj kev paub, kev kawm, thiab kev txhawb nqa cov niam txiv Hmoob, cov kws saib xyuas menyuam, thiab cov coj hauv zej zog kom lawv paub txog cov kev pab npaj menyu