Baby Talk: Resources to Support the People Who Work With Infants and Toddlers
Issue No. 50, July 2015
Depression in Mothers: More than the Blues
This toolkit from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) delivers background in-formation about depression and offers ideas that providers can use daily when helping mothers, and their families, who may be suffering from depression. The toolkit also includes useful resources and handouts for mothers with depression.
Five Tips for Baby Conversations
Why should you talk to a baby? Because young children need to hear language in order to learn it. This article highlights evidence-based practices for supporting speech, language and vocabulary development in very young children.
Emerging State and Community Strategies to Improve Infant and Toddler Services
The Center for American Progress’) Early Childhood Policy Team published this June 2015 report to outline the need for creating a continuum of services in the midst of the current isolated and underfunded programs that support infants and toddlers. It also highlights effective strategies that states and communities are following to do just that.
https://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/InfantToddlerAlignment-report2.pdf (full report)
Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress: Foundations for Understanding Self-Regulation from an Applied Developmental Perspective
According to this January 2015 report from the Center for Child and Family Policy, Duke University, self-regulation can be strengthened and taught, and skills that aren’t developed early can be acquired later–with multiple opportunities for intervention. The report states that development of self-regulation is dependent on “co-regulation” provided by parents or other caregiving adults through warm and responsive interactions in which support, coaching, and modeling are provided to facilitate a child’s ability to understand, express, and modulate their thoughts, feelings, and behavior. The document provides a comprehensive framework for understanding self-regulation in context, using a theoretical model that reflects the influence of biology, caregiving, and the environment on the development of self-regulation.
Children Sleep Better When They Have a Nightly Bedtime Routine
A multinational study, Bedtime Routines for Young Children: A Dose-Dependent Association with Sleep Outcomes, released by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, suggests that having a regular bedtime routine is associated with better sleep in young children up to 6 years of age, and the positive impact on sleep increases with the consistency of the nightly routine. The study found that children with a consistent bedtime routine every night slept for an average of more than an hour longer per night than children who never had a bedtime routine. Institution of a regular bedtime routine also was associated with decreased sleep problems and daytime behavior problems, as perceived by mothers.
Baby Talk is a free, one-way listserv that is distributed each month. 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.