Consider your own daily intake of F & V find the Kentucky Proud list of vegetables in your handout.

? Think Spot

Circle the vegetables you eat regularly.

Congratulations!!

You have made it through the course requirements. A few additional items before you access your certificate.

If you have additional questions or comments about the content, please use the “contact us” button at the bottom of the page.

Please complete the form below. If you mark “no” credit for completion of this course WILL NOT be added to your ECE-TRIS professional development record.

Your individual training record in ECE-TRIS will be updated within 10 days with the course credit. ECE-TRIS is a training registry for early care and education providers and gives you 24/7 access to your professional learning record: https://tris.eku.edu/ece

Now that we’ve set the foundation for why consideration for healthy behaviors should be made in early care and education, let’s review the 5 evidence based behaviors of the 5-2-1-0 message.

 

Click here to download the 5210 Toolkit handout for online module. This handout contains information relevant to the course, as well as references you can continue to use and share once you have completed the course.

 

After watching the introduction video and downloading the handout, consider these questions.

1. Consider the quotes below. Which one motivates you to support healthy behaviors for children?
   • “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”–Frederick Douglass
   • “When the joy goes out of eating, nutrition suffers.”–Ellyn Satter
   • “Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.“–Michael Pollan
   • “Exercise and recreation are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary, because health is worth more than learning.”–Thomas Jefferson
2. Describe how this motivates you or what this quote means to you. Record your response in your handout.

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Now, click on the first topic below to continue.

Congratulations!!

You have made it through the course requirements. A few additional items before you access your certificate.

If you have additional questions or comments about the content, please use the “contact us” button at the bottom of the page.

Please complete the form below. If you mark “no” credit for completion of this course WILL NOT be added to your ECE-TRIS professional development record.

Your individual training record in ECE-TRIS will be updated within 10 days with the course credit. ECE-TRIS is a training registry for early care and education providers and gives you 24/7 access to your professional learning record: https://tris.eku.edu/ece

Now that we have an understanding of the scales, let’s spend time understanding how they are scored. Start by clicking the first topic, Pre-Observation, below.

This course was developed by Child Care Aware of Kentucky, with support by the Governor’s Office of Early Childhood, the Division of Child Care, and the Kentucky Department of Education – School Readiness Branch.

Upon successful completion of the course requirements, you will have a better understanding of the environment rating scales and how to submit a self assessment of your center. This self assessment is a requirement for providers seeking a Level 2 rating in Kentucky’s quality rating and improvement system – known as Kentucky All-STARS.

Watch a brief video below that gives an explanation of what the ERS scales are and why they are important to quality early care and education.

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Goals for this course:

1. Understand the format of the Environment Rating Scales (ERS) through review of the Items, Indicators and Supplementary Materials.
2. Learn how to score items on the scales.
3. Assist you as you complete your environmental self assessment.
4. Apply what you’ve learned to make quality improvement decisions within your environments

This course takes approximately 2 hours to complete and is approved for  2 early care and education clock hours.

In this course, you will encounter the following types of activities

• ? Think Spot: An ungraded opportunity to reflect on the topic discussed and likely is tied to the course handout. It is recommended that you download or print the handout to have on hand while you complete this course.
• ? Check Your Knowledge: A graded quiz to check your understanding of the topic(s) covered. Check Your Knowledge quizzes are complete when 80% of the questions are answered correctly. You may take the Check Your Knowledge quizzes multiple times until 80% is achieved.
• Embedded Videos: Throughout the course there are videos from various YouTube channels. Many of these videos must be viewed in its entirety before moving on to the next topic. If you encounter a problem with a video please use the Contact Us at the bottom of the screen and include the name of the video or topic you are having trouble with.

To continue, click the first lesson topic below.

Introduction to Strategies that Help!

Let’s review 4 key strategies or tools that we can use to help young children learn to calm themselves. You may use some of these tools already; sometimes, it is helpful to be reminded of what works.

It is important to know:

• EARLY self-soothing, comforting, distraction, and help-seeking behaviors are CRITICAL to children’s self-regulation. The sooner we can teach children to regulate their feelings, the more effective we can be.
• Warm support and guidance from parents and caregivers are key to learning self-regulation. Positive, patient adult guidance teaches children how to calm their bodies and control their reactions.

Let’s discuss 4 key strategies that help children learn to control their emotions and behaviors.  In later sections, we’ll discuss why each one is helpful, and give practical ways to teach each one.

4 KEY Strategies to help children self-regulate:

• Expand pretend play
• Provide sleep assistance
• Give behavior help
• Teach calming tricks

Remember, during this course, we’ll learn how to use each of these strategies.

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To get us thinking about each of these strategies, let’s look at the picture below.  What self-calming techniques are in use?  WRITE your ideas on your handout.

In this course, you will encounter the following types of activities

• Think Spot: An ungraded opportunity to reflect on the topic discussed and likely is tied to the course handout. It is recommended that you download or print the handout to have on hand while you complete this course.
• Check Your Knowledge: A graded quiz to check your understanding of the topic(s) covered. Check Your Knowledge quizzes are complete when 80% of the questions are answered correctly. You may take the Check Your Knowledge quizzes multiple times until 80% is achieved.
• Embedded Videos: Throughout the course there are videos from various YouTube channels. Many of these videos must be viewed in its entirety before moving on to the next topic. If you encounter a problem with a video please contact us using the button below and include the name of the video or topic you are having trouble with.

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This is a review of how an ARC must use the Kentucky Alternate Assessment Participation Guidelines to determine if a student is eligible to participate in the alternate assessment.

When you are ready to begin click Topic 2.1.

Learning Outcome: Assess the impact of external transition on children, families, staff and the ECE business.

While the importance of continuity in ECE for children and families is clearly documented, external transitions also carry potential negative impacts on early care and education businesses.  When faced with challenging behaviors in young children, ECE programs may find themselves faced with a seemingly impossible situation.  Teachers may feel unprepared to deal with a child’s behavior.  Parents of children who are bullied or injured by another who demonstrates patterns of problem behaviors will most likely place pressure on centers to quickly address the problem.  As a result, transitioning the child with behavior issues may seem to be the quickest and easiest way to solve the problem and restore relationships between parents and the teachers involved.  External transition, however, is not without consequences that linger, sometimes long after the child is externally transitioned from the program.  Such decisions have implications for staff, other children, their families, and for business aspects of the center.

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Although the impact of external transition on children is well documented in the literature reviewed, little or no hard data is available on how these transitions directly impact families because it is not tracked.  Anecdotally, families may be impacted by both voluntary and involuntary transition.  The impacts can have implications for work, finance, family dynamics, and social functioning.  Clearly, unexpected center-initiated external transitions may contribute to increased family stress and burden.  Often families do not receive assistance in identifying an alternative placement, leaving the burden of finding another program entirely to the family.  There may be challenges accessing another program, particularly an affordable, high-quality program.  Even in cases where assistance is offered, often there is a lapse in service which leaves families, especially working families, in difficult situations (United States Department of Health and Human Services, 2016).

Loss of care can create significant challenges for working parents as they attempt to procure new child care placements because of the lack of suitable programs conveniently located near workplaces with availability during times care is needed (Oldham, 2018).  They may be forced to take any siblings to another center as well because of an inability to logistically manage to drop their children off at different centers and the impact that would have on their schedules.  Parents seeking care may be unable to work while they seek new services, and may be at risk for reduced income, disciplinary actions on the job, or loss of a job.  Family finances can be impacted if comparable care at the same cost is not available.  Lack of adequate transportation can become an issue as well.  Women living in child care deserts are especially vulnerable in the event of an unplanned external transition.  Lack of available child care may result in women leaving the workforce on a temporary or permanent basis.  Women leaving the workforce after having children may be a factor in the gender wage gap (Redden, 2018).

Loss of child care may also impact family dynamics.  Parents may experience a range of emotional responses as their child experiences disruption in his or her programs.  Child behavior issues may emerge, and regression can occur. This can elicit feelings of frustration, sadness, anger, helplessness, and powerlessness in the parent and the child, which can impact relationships with other family members and peers.  External transition also has the potential to impact all family members’ social interactions and their participation in the community (“School suspension, exclusion or expulsion,” 2017).

Learning Objective: Evaluate programmatic decisions for their impact on children.

Despite research findings promoting the importance of consistency and continuity in early care and education, data suggests the United States lacks critical ECE infrastructure that would make quality care consistently available, promote continuity, and potentially reduce external transitions.  While ECE services include school-district-operated preschool, privately owned and operated child care and preschool programs, and in-home care, data suggests availability is impacted by location, hours of operation, age range served, and spaces reserved for children from low-income homes and those with disabilities.  With many types ECE programs operating in the nation and in Kentucky, there is much diversity across programs.  No national or state curriculum is prescribed, and there is no mandated set of national or state quality standards.  This does not mean that programs must implement a federally or state-mandated curriculum to be considered high-quality programs.  On the contrary, many excellent programs that utilize a range of different types of curricula serve children well. 

When considered as part of the child care and education infrastructure and its implications for children experiencing external transitions, however, it becomes clear that continuity of care is a serious challenge for families seeking new options for their children.

Learning Objective: Connect the impact of transition to long term behaviors in children and potentially lifelong impacts on their lives.

In its simplest form, transition means change.  All children experience transitions within early care and education (ECE) programs as they move from one classroom activity or area to another, to different areas inside centers and outside play areas, or as they enter and leave the facility.   These transitions, for the most part, are routine occurrences, and child care centers typically utilize strategies to ease these instances of change and help children adapt to them.  External transition, the permanent relocation of a child from one child care setting to another, is typically less routine, less predictable, and more impactful for centers, children, and their families, which makes adjustment more difficult for all parties. 

External transition in ECE settings, for this course, is defined as movement from one child care setting to an alternate setting resulting from parental choice, an agency decision, or a center having discontinued services to a child.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Deputy Assistant Secretary’s Office on Early Childhood Development recommends avoiding practices that externally transition children from their ECE environments because of the potential negative impact.  The DHHS reports there is evidence that external transition from programs places young children at greater risk for suspension and expulsion in later school years.  Once in school, children who are suspended or expelled drop out at rates ten times that of other children, are more likely to experience school failure and grade retention, have negative attitudes, and are at higher risk for incarceration. External transitions may impact social-emotional and behavioral development and could mask developmental delays and disabilities by preventing early childhood professionals from identifying delays in skills and making referrals for evaluation or treatment (United States Department of Health and Human Services, 2016).

Consistent with the DHHS policy statement, the focus of this course suggests the evidence-based best practice of families and centers partnering to prevent external transitions when possible is most appropriate.  Exceptions may be warranted when external transition is in the child’s best interest, or it is unavoidable.  Ending center-initiated external transition alone, however, is insufficient to address the social-emotional and behavioral needs of young children, and initiatives such as targeted professional development and center-wide behavioral supports are needed to promote long-term success.

This course will explore the potential problems associated with external transitions in early childhood education (ECE) settings and provide a rationale supporting prevention and intervention practices.  Considerations for developing a comprehensive, evidence-based prevention and intervention plan are provided.  To support children undergoing unavoidable external transitions, evidence-based practices are offered to improve the process and to potentially reduce negative impacts on the child, the family, and the child care center.

To continue with the course, click Topic 1.1 below.

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Did you miss a question or section in the handout?  Click here to download the Visually Impaired Completed Handout

 

Course Wrap Up

Congratulations, you have made it through the course requirements. A few additional items before you access your certificate.

1. The anonymous course evaluation is available by clicking here. We ask that you please submit honest feedback, we love to hear from you.
2. If you have additional questions about the content, feel free to email registration@lsv.uky.edu and we will have the appropriate staff get back with you.
3. Your individual training record in ECE-TRIS will be updated within 10 days with the course credit. ECE-TRIS is a training registry for early care and education providers and gives you 24/7 access to your professional learning record: https://tris.eku.edu/ece
4. Submitting the ECE-TRIS form below will give you access to a recognition of course completion. This is not an official certificate, your official training record is available in ECE-TRIS.

 

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Now that you have an understanding of eye issues, let’s examine how to provide care to children who have visual impairments.

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This online course should take approximately two hours to complete. It may be more or less, depending on how quickly you move through the content and if you choose to explore some of the additional resources provided.  You do not have to complete this course in one sitting, rather, you are encouraged to take your time to process the information presented in the course. You have until June 30 to satisfy the course requirements.

 

This course includes:

• Interactive content based on evidence-based research.
• Time to reflect and process the information you just learned using Checkpoints.
• Handouts for the module, with space for your thoughts and resources on the topic.
• A course evaluation.
• A credit request. The credit request cannot be accessed until all course requirements have been satisfied, including submitting all assignments and passing the final quiz at 80% or higher.

Click the first topic below to get started.

Congratulations, you have made it through the course requirements. A few additional items before you access your certificate.

If you have additional questions or comments about the content, please use the “contact us” button at the bottom of the page.

ECE-TRIS Record

Please complete the form below. If you mark “no” credit for completion of this course WILL NOT be added to your ECE-TRIS professional development record.

Your individual training record in ECE-TRIS will be updated within 10 days with the course credit. ECE-TRIS is a training registry for early care and education providers and gives you 24/7 access to your professional learning record: https://tris.eku.edu/ece.

Oops! You need to be logged in to use this form.

Continuing our work in supporting children’s emotional health we will build on one of the components of emotional health we learned in Section 2; Promoting Self-Regulation.  Research has indicated how important self-regulation is to later learning, so we will focus on it here.

In conclusion, we’ll participate in an activity that will help us identify our interactional style with children, to extend our understanding that was begun in the IT3 Temperament tool in Section 1.

Continue to use your course handout to fill in the content as you go to support your learning.

Completing all activities is necessary to master content and to answer assessment questions, so allow yourself time to participate fully.