Baby Talk: Resources to Support the People Who Work With Infants and Toddlers
Issue No. 20, January 2013
Family Routines- based Support Guide: Building Relationships with Your Infant
This Family Routine Guide-Building Relationships with Your Infant was developed to assist family-members and caregivers in developing a plan to support infants and build relationships. The guide was originally created to be used with older infants and toddlers who are using challenging behavior. Challenging behavior, typically, communicates a need to escape or avoid a person/activity or communicates a desire to obtain someone/something. Once caregivers understand the purpose or meaning of the behavior, they can begin to select strategies to change the behavior. They can do this by selecting prevention strategies, teaching new skills, and changing the way they respond in an effort to eliminate or minimize the challenging behavior. http://www.challengingbehavior.org/do/resources/documents/tool_fam_routine_guide_infants.pdf
Characteristics of Infants in Foster Care
A study by Chapin Hall looks at the characteristics of infants in foster care, focusing on key findings across five domains, including: incidence of first-time placements, duration in care, experiences in care, characteristics, and vulnerability for delayed development. Although infants in foster care face a number of challenges, the researchers found that early intervention programs, appropriate therapeutic responses, and caregiver training and support can reduce the harmful effects of stress that these children experience and improve the odds for better cognitive outcomes. Who Are the Infants in Out-of-Home Care? An Epidemiological and Developmental Snapshot (2011), by Fred Wulczyn, Michelle Ernst, and Philip Fisher, is available online at http://www.chapinhall.org/sites/default/files/publications/06_08_11_Issue%20Brief_F_1.pdf
Tips for Choosing Toys for Toddlers
Suggestions from ZERO TO THREE for choosing toys that will grow with a child, challenge him or her, and nurture his or her overall development (e.g., thinking, physical, language and social-emotional skills) are available at http://www.zerotothree.org/child-development/play/tips-for-choosing-toys-for.html
Supporting Babies and Families Impacted by Caregiver Mental Health Problems, Substance Abuse, and Trauma
This publication provides resources to help service providers better understand and engage their communities in responding to children whose caregivers are negatively impacted by mental illness, substance abuse, or trauma. Supporting Babies and Families Impacted by Caregiver Mental Health Problems, Substance Abuse, and Trauma: A Community Action Guide (2012) includes sections on threats to resilience, protective factors that promote resilience, and other important topics.
http://store.samhsa.gov/shin/content/SMA12-4726/SMA12-4726.pdf
Using Assistive Technology (AT) to Promote Literacy in Infants and Toddlers
The December 2012 newsletter from the Tots-n-Tech Research Institute contains a guide to using AT to incorporate literacy into everyday activities and routines.
http://tnt.asu.edu/files/Dec2012Newsletter.pdf
Baby Talk is a free, one-way listserv that is distributed every other week. Each issue features one or more resources, the majority of which are available to download at no cost. To join the listserv, send an email with no message to subscribe-babytalk@listserv.unc.edu. To suggest resources, please contact Camille Catlett at camille.catlett@unc.edu or (919) 966-6635.