Supporting Families Together AssociationQ u a r t e r l y N e w s l e t t e rJuly, August, September year 2014 Issue 15

this issue

Early Intervention Through PIWIThoughts from a Mental Health ProfessionalNurture Through Nature with Claire Warden

Bilingual Practice/Staff Spotlight: Penny ChaseUpdates & Announcements

P. 1&2P. 3&4P. 5&6P. 7 P. 8

Summer ISSue

In this issue you will find stories about innovative strategies and techniques that other early childhood professionals are working on, relevent trainings, research, and resources, and updates from SFTA and our partners. Enjoy!

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Early Intervention With PIWI: Parents Interacting With Infants

Staci Sontoski and Lana Nenide, both SFTA Board Members that work within the early childhood field,

were introduced to the Parents Interacting With Infants (PIWI) intervention through CSEFEL trainings near the time Wisconsin become a Pyramid Model State in 2009.

“I was really, really attracted to the idea of a strength-based support we can bring to families,” said Lana, adding that she saw the chance to implement PIWI as a “rare opportunity” to offer direct support to families and observe the results firsthand.

When the Children’s Trust Fund (CTF) awarded a grant to a Milwaukee agency called SaintA, Lana and Staci had that chance to implement the PIWI intervention with a group of teenage mothers transitioning out of foster care who were housed at SaintA. A few of these mothers

already had a child, while others had one on the way. Some had both. SaintA brought Lana and Staci on board as PIWI facilitators for the group.

“In the beginning these mothers did not really want to be with their kids,” said Staci. Like most teenagers, “they wanted to hang out with each other.”

Besides being quite young to deal with the responsibilities of motherhood, these particular mothers came from difficult childhoods that they were still dealing with as teens, often never developing a strong bond with their own parents or caregivers. Now, faced with raising their children at such a young age, they were at a disadvantage.

“It is really hard to give something if you never had it,” said Lana.

Kelly McClurg SFTA Board Members’ Work Beyond the Boardroom

PIWI: Parents Interacting With Infants(Continued from page 1)

In Lana and Staci’s jointly written and recently published article, Breaking the Cycle, it states that “PIWI recognizes the critical value that parent-child interactions have in a child’s development…The goal of PIWI is to increase parental competence, confidence, and mutual enjoyment.”

PIWI groups have the potential to counteract a long standing cycle of emotional disconnect between generations of parents and their children. It strengthens parents’ bond to their children through dyadic strategies, which show parents how to engage with their children, and triadic strategies that guide PIWI facilitators like Lana and Staci in teaching parents how to successfully bond with their children.

“These strategies are concrete, and you have to be mindful and intentional about how you implement them,” said Staci. “And when you are, it works.”

Such strategies were implemented by Staci and Lana to first develop a trust with the mothers, then between the mothers and their children. Mothers were made aware of “infant cues, emotions, behaviors, and what they might mean,” and shown how to focus on details to set the stage for positive interactions with their children, such as providing a developmentally appropriate setting and toys, getting down to their child’s level to make eye contact, and being responsive to their behaviors (Breaking the Cycle).

As a result, what began as a group of teenagers more interested in their phones and one another than their children, ended in pairs of young mothers and their children reading together, laughing together, and connecting.

“I believe that our goals were met based on both the mother’s perceptions and the outcomes we saw,” said Lana. “But for me personally, I just wanted to see a qualitative difference in how these mothers were with their babies. And I absolutely did. I saw it in their eyes, saw it in their touch…they were suddenly looking at their babies saying, ‘Oh my goodness, I have something amazing here.’”

“I think the coaching framework that is laid out in PIWI is just incredibly powerful,” added Staci. “Research shows that if a parent feels more competent and confident, they are more likely to engage with their child, ask for help and support, and have a mutual enjoyment for their child.”

Both Lana and Staci see PIWI as having the possibility for very broad application across the early childhood field, including the avenues of support SFTA focuses on through their member Child Care Resource & Referral agencies (CCR&Rs) and Family Resource Centers (FRCs). Triadic strategies could be a fit for someone going in to support early education providers, while dyadic strategies can help inform the work of a provider and be implemented within parent engagement activities. FRC play groups are the perfect environments to initiate PIWI in ways similar to their implementation within the SaintA group.

“Work like this feeds the passion you have for it by being close and enmeshed in it,” said Staci. “And [from the standpoint of being SFTA board members], PIWI presents strategies that are very useful in supporting the population that SFTA supports.”

With one PIWI group success, Lana and Staci look forward to continue their work together on supporting mothers and babies. This new series of groups will begin this September in Milwaukee and will involve both SaintA and Acelero Learning HeadStart program.They are also coaching two new facilitators in PIWI, and hope as they move forward to slowly see a more system-wide implementation of PIWI within early childhood.

“If we can create one moment where a parent feels connected and is mutually enjoying an interaction with their baby,” said Staci, “it creates a whole new cycle of future moments that build on that first moment and leads to something bigger.”

Besides being SFTA board members, Staci Sontoski is the Home Visiting Professional Development Manager with Milwaukee Child Welfare Partnership, and Lana Nenide is the Executive Director of Wisconsin Alliance for Infant and Mental Health (WI-AIMH).

It is morning outside of a Milwaukee Head Start center, and two mothers are walking their sons to

the building. Just before they enter, one mother is suddenly confronted by her boyfriend. He is upset, and physically attacks her. Both young boys see it happen. Luckily, both mothers and their sons emerge from this situation safely. But now both of these children, not to mention their mothers, carry the memory of this attack with them. The emotional toll becomes evident. One boy, let’s call him *Ben, is now afraid to go to school. Ben can’t sleep. He is wetting the bed, and acting aggressive towards his siblings. Aurora Family Service Milwaukee Mental Health Consultants (MMHC) staff is called in to meet with Ben, his parents, and the school on multiple occasions. Together they work to develop strategies and a framework for Ben to regain his sense of safety at home and at school, and to express his feelings in a healthy, non-aggressive way. Ben’s mother reports that he is doing well thanks to the extra emotional supports he received. He has overcome a traumatic event that may have otherwise caused long-term emotional effects. Even better, Ben’s mother now has the knowledge and tools in place to help support Ben’s social emotional health more effectively in the future.

“Supporting children’s mental health early on is like building the base for a house,” Explains MMHC Manager Kevin O’Brian. “If the base of that structure is sound, than the rest of the house is that much stronger. Research shows that early experiences are very much like that house; if those early experiences and supports are shaky, that child is unstable. And it is much harder to start over and build everything up from scratch again than to get it right the first time.”

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the rapidity with which the brain develops early on in a child’s life makes it crucial to intervene and provide needed supports for mental health issues as effectively and as early on as possible. When this does not happen, mental health issues in young children may grow and fester over the years into a much more intrusive, lifelong mental illness that will go on to affect their teenage and adult years. Those children who do not receive early mental health supports, as adults, “tend to use more health care services and have higher health care costs than other adults” and descend into “a downward spiral of school failure, poor employment opportunities, and poverty in adulthood” (NAMI).

Research such as this illustrates exactly why providing supports for children’s mental health is extremely important. Just as important, says Kevin, is getting a child’s family involved in developing a mental health support system when there is an

issue that needs to be addressed. The goals of the mental health consultations that MMHC completes are three-fold:

1. Specific problem-solving: Addressing a certain issue or situation that one child is facing.

2. Capacity building: Working to train and guide early education staff and parents to be more informed about dealing with mental health issues so that they are equipped to deal with it appropriately.

3. Engagement: Of the child’s family, caregivers, and other adult supporters, in providing access to the services that a child needs, and an emotional support system.

Unfortunately, says Kevin, often the very families and children that need these supports and resources the most, do not reach out.

“Kids and families who are struggling with a mental health issue tend to avoid involvement in mental

“An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Care”: Thoughts from a Mental Health ProfessionalKelly McClurg

health services,” says Kevin. “This is part of what leads to higher expulsion rates in early education.” (See Child Retention in WI Child Care Settings and Prekindergarteners Left Behind: Expulsion Rates in State Prekindergarten Systems).

So what actions can early educators and other early childhood professionals take to better support children’s mental health?

The first step is to build your base of knowledge and understanding about children’s mental health. While Kevin admits that a sustainable statewide model for early childhood mental health is not currently something Wisconsin has, there are still lots of resources out there to pull from. (See sidebar). Take in all of the evidence-informed research, trainings, and literature that you can. Connect with early mental health professionals in your area, or even bring in outside consultants such as those from MMHC to build a base of understanding in your program. Once you can successfully understand and implement those supportive mental health strategies for the children in your care, you are positioned to effectively engage the parents as well.

“As soon as a provider has any sense there may

be a mental health concern, put all efforts into building a relationship with those parents,” states Kevin.

This means building a relationship with parents from a “positive note,” such as calling or writing a note about something good that happened in a child’s day. Take time to learn about the parents

and the child, and follow up on what you learn by asking parents questions to show you are interested. This way, when a mental health concern must be addressed, parents are less likely to become defensive and unresponsive, and will instead view the provider as a “trusted partner.”

Building this type of parent relationship does require a level of persistence to connect with parents that can take a daily effort to sustain. But

in the end it pays off in giving early educators a more positive relationship with parents and more positive long-term outcomes for children struggling with mental health issues, and even those who do not.

“A good mental health consultant is gradually working themselves out of a job,” jokes Kevin. “But I’m a believer in the value of what we do.”

(Continued from page 3)

1. Wisconsin Alliance for Infant Mental Health (WI-AIMH)

2. University of Wisconsin Department of Psychiatry: Infant, Early Childhood, and Family Mental Health Capstone Certificate Program

3. Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development

4. Maryland’s Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH) Consultation Project

5. The Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) Child Care Expulsion Prevention (CCEP)®

6. San Francisco Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Initiative

7. National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health Did You Know? SFTA offers our core members annual scholarship opportunities to earn their Infant, Early Childhood, and Family Certificate? Not to mention other great benefits. Check it out!

7 Resources to Help YOU Support Children’s

Mental Health

Imagine two very young children who have never seen a pine tree. Each of their caregivers wants

to teach them what it is. One caregiver shows their child a picture of pine trees. They talk about how they grow outdoors, the pointy green needles and pine cones they sprout, and how sometimes animals might make them their home. The other caregiver plans a trip outdoors to a grove of pine trees. Their child tips their head under the branches to feel the shade they provide, and the pine needles poking their arms. They pull off a pine needle and breathe in the spicy smell. They break it in two to see what it looks like inside. They touch the trunk and get sticky sap on their hands, then look up and see a nest of birds living in a branch above their heads. Which of these two children do you think will truly see and remember what a pine tree is? Most experienced early childhood professionals are a step ahead, and will likely surmise that of course, the child who saw, felt, and smelled an actual pine tree would be more likely to really learn what one is. And that goes for all things really—holding and tasting a banana instead of just playing with a plastic one, running through a field instead of just seeing a photograph. But for providers, parents, and other early childhood professionals, knowing this is not always the same as doing it. How many times does weather, safety concerns, ease of access, or just plain old fatigue, stop us from exposing young children to the natural world?

Claire Warden, an educational consultant, author, and award-winning lecturer in the early childhood field, is on a mission to ensure all children have a chance to interact with, and learn from nature.

“As a lecturer in primary education I needed to make sure that there was research out there that people could really draw on when they wanted to justify the placement of nature in the curriculum,” said Claire in a

recent interview about her work as a consultant.

At her summer training in Wisconsin, Claire discussed how her research, as well as other prominent research in the field, (*see sidebar), illustrates the advantages of giving children time to interact in nature, benefitting everything from their capacity to learn, to their physical and mental health, and language acquisition.

As part of the World Nature Collaborative, Claire and her colleagues look to “develop a cohesive network and approach to experiential learning in outdoor spaces in a variety of climates.” (Claire Warden website). This summer, Claire led Wisconsin early childhood professionals through a week-long exploration of the ways that children can experience the outdoors as an embedded part of their learning. Claire emphasized that simply being outdoors is not necessarily experiencing the outdoors. Some aspects of nature can even be experienced inside. It is all about allowing children to interact with some level of freedom with the natural world, and giving them the opportunity to learn from those first-hand interactions. Observing such interactions can be equally educational for caregivers, in supporting the development of the children in their care.

Claire offered multiple examples of how barriers to natural interaction can be overcome, and nature can be explored both outside, and inside:

• Manufactured toys, games, and objects are a single specific shade of every color, giving children a limited idea of the possible variations of color or its occurrence in nature. Rather than using these types of materials use something like a pile of thornless yellow roses spread on a sheet or blanket to talk about the color yellow. The children will likely pull them apart; touch them, smell them, ask questions. This creates a sensory experience

Nurture Through Nature with Claire Warden Kelly McClurg

Some Research and Resources for You to “Nurture Through Nature”

and more

Claire Warden’s Books

Claire Warden’s website

The Rie Philosophy: Encourages being able to read the body language of

babies.

Threads of Thinking, Cathy Nutbrown

Scottish Natural Heritage Report: young people’s interaction with natural heritage

through outdoor learning.

Wisconsin Nature Action Collaborative for Children:Facebook website

World Forum Nature Action Collaborative for Children

Men in Childcare Movement

attached to the color yellow and connects it to something real, which is a more memorable, effective way for children to learn.

• In winter, put swaths of black velvet in the freezer and let children take them out when it is snowing. The snowflakes can land on the fabric whole, without melting or breaking, so that children can see and examine a snowflake up close.

• Set times and places to let children safely explore nature. Develop an understanding about what we can collect and touch in nature and what is just for looking at and leaving.

• Make foods available in the classroom only when they are seasonally available. This will help children correlate the growth of different fruits and vegetables with different seasons, weather patterns, and areas of the world.

• Hand over natural learning materials and walk away so that children can explore them without the influence of your body language and facial expressions. Set children up to find the correct answers for themselves.

• Instead of a puzzle, give a child a broken stick or torn leaf and some tape or glue. Have them put it back together in the way they think it should go.

“To create meaning and understanding for anything,” said Claire on the final day of her Wisconsin training series, “you must first disassemble.”

We must allow children the chance to explore, pick apart, and restructure nature for them to truly gain an understanding. Whether it is to pull the petals off a flower, dig in the dirt to see what they can find, or watch a squirrel hiding food for the winter. To give children first hand access to see, smell, hear, and touch nature is to give them the opportunity to learn first-hand, in the most effective, meaningful way possible.

“Imagine a place where the carpet changes every day, the ceiling is a myriad of different colours, light shadow and movement…If we really want children to thrive we need to let their connection to nature nurture them.” (Claire Warden, Nurture Through Nature).

Nurture Through Nature with Claire Warden (Continued from page 5...)

Photo Credit: Jimee, Jackie, Tom & Asha, “Rose Petals in a Child’s Hands”

Position at SFTA: Quality Improvement ManagerNumber of years with SFTA: Four years in NovemberFavorite color: GREENFavorite food: Dark chocolate peanut M&M’s

What is the best part about your job?The variety! I am so lucky to work with amazing people on different aspects of quality child care.

What do you do for fun in your off time?Scrapbooking, and I am trying to learn to like gardening. There are lots of flower beds at my house. It’s fun to see the flowers blooming at different times. I’m still trying to figure out what they all are!

If you were not in this job, what would you be doing?Writing novels at home and working in my pajamas.

What is your favorite children’s book or toy and why?10 Minutes Till Bedtime by Peggy Rathmann, because the story is about the routines that children have before going to bed at night and it brings in some fun counting activities.

Is there anything else you want to share?I enjoy office pranks if they are subtle and clever! Unless it’s Christmastime, then decorating someone’s office as tacky as you can is perfectly acceptable.

Thanks for sharing Penny!

Staff Spotlight: Penny ChaseKelly McClurg

We know that early childhood supports are key elements to children’s success, that the learning needs early childhood professionals share bring us together, and that our interactions produce resources that form our best practices. Knowing that quality begets quality, and to ensure resources are available to all, Supporting Families Together Association (SFTA), in collaboration with partner agencies, is starting a statewide Early Childhood Bilingual Community of Practice (EC-B-CoP) focusing on three objectives:1. To bring together bilingual individuals who work in and share a passion

for the field of Early Childhood (EC) and who have the skills to train, consult with, advocate for, mentor, supervise, and evaluate individuals who serve Wisconsin’s children.

2. Encourage ongoing collaboration among bilingual EC professionals who want to deepen their knowledge and expertise so that they may serve as mentors to their peers, ensuring trainings and services for those with limited English proficiency are of equal quality to those offered to their English speaking counterparts.

3. Nurture future professionals in the EC field, including but not limited to, trainers, teachers, home visitors, and parent educators.

The EC-B-CoP steering committee is working towards these objectives, and are eager to recruit early childhood professionals interested in being a part of our efforts. Participating in the EC-B-CoP is as easy as contacting Romilia Schlueter at (608) 443.2495 or romilia@supportingfamiliestogether.org.

**This committee will also lend a hand in another initiative: the third annual bi-lingual festival celebrating children, families, and their providers! This year’s festival is November 8th at Edgewood College campus in Madison, 11 AM to 3 PM. Contact Romilia for more information, and watch SFTA social media for updates as this fun family event approaches!ortingfamiliesto.o

SFTA Bilingual Community of Practice(Leer en Español)Romilia Schlueter

SFTA is supported in part by:

SFTA Updates • Once Upon a Book Drive has reached its

end, and WOW what a fantastic first year it was! Our grand total for this year’s drive is: 5,383 books! That is more than 5 times our original goal! We owe a huge thank you to our member CCR&Rs, community business supporters, and all of those individuals out there who took a moment to thoughtfully donate a book or two to a child in need. Read more about this success here.

• Say hello to our newest SFTA team member, Connie Dunlap, who will be joining SFTA as our Family Engagement Specialist. Connie previously worked at our member joint CCR&R and FRC, The Parenting Place, for several years, and we look forward to having her unique set of skills onboard!

• Welcome to Lana Nenide, our newest board member and long-time partner in the field. Lana has been working in the early childhood field for many years, for the past 8 years at the Wisconsin Alliance for Infant Mental Health (WIAMH), where she was recently named Executive Director.

• Have you seen these online Emergency Preparedness Training Materials for family and group child care centers? They offer tips on how to safely prepare for a variety of disasters. Take a peek!

Mary Beth Plane, MSSW, PhD, President Retired, Senior Scientist, Director Research ServicesUW Department of Family Medicine

Staci SontoskiHome Visiting Professional Development ManagerMilwaukee Child Welfare PartnershipHelen Badger School of Social WelfareUniversity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Kelly Jensen, TreasurerAdministrator/Program DirectorSand Box Child Care & Preschool

Patricia Woods-Clark, SecretaryAssistant Program SupervisorA Child’s Place Child Care Center/Goodwill Industries

Paula Breese, CCR&R RepresentativeExecutive DirectorFamily and Childcare Resources of NEW Jodi Widuch, FRC RepresentativeExecutive DirectorThe Parenting Place

Lana Nenide, MS IMH-E® (IV)Executive DirectorWI Pyramid Model State CoordinatorWI Alliance for Infant Mental Health

Melissa VelezB-3 Resource T/TA SE RegionCESA #5

Arianna Keil, MDMedical Home Projects CoordinatorChildren’s Hospital of WI-Fox Valley

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700 Rayovac Drive, Suite 6Madison, WI 537111.888.713.KIDS (5437)(608) 443.2490www.supportingfamiliestogether.orginfo@supportingfamiliestogether.org

SFTA Board of Directors SFTA Staff Abbe Braun Early Childhood Program Coordinator

Melissa Chan Data Specialist

Penny Chase Quality Improvement Manager

Connie DunlapFamily Engagement Specialist

Jill Hoiting Co-Director, Programs & External Relations

Kathy Kadar Quality Assurance Specialist

Toni Kutner Licensing Preparation Technical Consultant

Erik Larson Co-Director, Operations

Kelly McClurg Communications Specialist

Anna Ramirez Licensing Preparation Manager

Romilia Schlueter Quality Improvement Specialist

Ger Thor Office Manager & Membership Coordinator