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THIS WEEK'S
HEADLINES
NEWS IMPACTING CHILDREN 0-5 AND THEIR FAMILIES
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Here is a quick look at some headlines from this week impacting the lives of kids 0-5 and their families. The purpose of these stories is simply to share information, and do not necessarily reflect First 5 Kern's areas of support, opinions or efforts towards these issues.
Follow First 5 Kern on social media (@First5Kern) for more kids news, as well as information about our funded programs and initiatives.
Now for the headlines...
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Online therapy for babies and toddlers with delays often works well — but funding isn’t keeping up with the need |
In the United States, an estimated 15 percent of children have developmental delays or disabilities, such as delayed crawling, walking and talking skills.
Research shows that early help from experts in the form of speech, physical or occupational therapy can have profound results for children.
Now, the pandemic has forced in-person therapies for infants and toddlers online and onto devices. Some experts say remote therapy for young children has returned early intervention to an important piece its original mission: training parents to be experts who can support their children’s development. (Hechinger Report)
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By global standards, the U.S. spends little tackling child poverty |
Even before the COVID pandemic hit, rich countries had a big problem: way too many poor children.
And one of the worst ranked is the richest of all countries—the United States.
Not only are a troubling number of American youths living below the poverty line, Washington and state capitals had been doing precious little to address it. (Forbes)
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Helicopter parenting will turn your kid into a brat, study says
More involvement, is not always better.
A team of researchers recently studied a group of children aged 4 to 6 and their primary caregivers over the course of two and a half hours at a Stanford lab. The children were given various tasks intended to study their self-regulation.
Researchers found that when children were appropriately on task, parents being very involved was correlated with the child having more trouble and behavioral issues. (New York Post)
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Why child support fails California kids in poverty
In California, when low-income parents make monthly child support payments, only $50 goes to their own children. The rest goes to safety-net programs used by the children and their mother.
The result: Children in poverty miss out on money they badly need; fathers are denied a sense of personal involvement in helping their children; and if parents fall behind on child support payments, they face a series of severe punishments which can ruin credit and make it difficult to find employment and housing. (CalMatters)
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EARLY CHILDCARE & EDUCATION
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Child Care is Infrastructure Act is introduced in House |
In an effort to bolster funding for the child care industry to provide the highest quality care to our nation’s youngest learners, Congresswoman Katherine Clark (D-MA) introduced the Child Care is Infrastructure Act, a comprehensive package that invests in child care infrastructure and workforce development and education opportunities for care providers.
As we prepare to rebuild our nation’s economy after this pandemic, there’s no question that addressing our nation’s child care crisis must be a core component. A robust child care market and a highly-skilled early education workforce will be essential to the economic recovery and our nation’s long-term well being, which makes the Child Care is Infrastructure Act a critical investment. (FFYF)
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California has help for parents who can't afford child care. Here's how to find it.
“Historically, Hispanic families have underutilized government assistance programs aimed at serving families who experience poverty, reporting that they do not need them or do not have knowledge of the assistance available or eligibility requirements,” according to a recent report.
Currently, the state offers subsidized child care and preschool for 415,000 children through various programs, according to a Legislative Analyst’s Office report. Here’s where to find help. (SacBee)
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Where have all the kindergartners gone?
Kindergarten, a foundational grade for young children, is typically the first year of elementary school, even in the 31 states where it isn’t required.
Faced with the substitution of online kindergarten, a widespread number of parents chose something else, even if it meant paying for it.
In the absence of official national data, independent analyses have tried to quantify this year’s shift away from kindergarten. According to reporting by NPR, kindergarten enrollment in districts across the country dropped by an average of 16 percent. (Hechinger Report)
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COVID: Studies show students are safe with less distancing |
One of the biggest remaining hurdles to reopening schools is the difficulty of spacing students six feet apart, as recommended by federal and state health authorities.
That guidance has meant fewer kids can be in a classroom, so schools have to rotate students in smaller shifts while others continue studying online at home.
But new research suggests that a three-foot space between students is enough to prevent COVID-19 from spreading in schools.
Now, health experts and many parents are calling on the California Department of Public Health to revise its six-foot guidance, as Illinois and Massachusetts have done. (Mercury News)
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Exercising during pregnancy can have lasting
health benefits for kids
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A new study conducted by researchers from the University of Virginia Health System shows that exercising during pregnancy may lead to health benefits throughout kids’ lives. In an experiment conducted on mice, their work showed that mice born to mothers that exercised during pregnancy were less likely to develop long-term health conditions into adulthood.
“Most of the chronic diseases that we talk about today are known to have fetal origin,” said researcher Zhen Yan, PhD. “This is to say that parents’ poor health conditions prior to and during pregnancy have negative consequences to the child, potentially through chemical modification of the genes.” (Consumer Affairs)
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Hall Ambulance paramedic crew reunited with Safe Surrender baby they delivered last year
A Hall Ambulance paramedic crew was reunited with a Safe Surrender baby they delivered last year. Paramedic Marian Anson and EMT Michelle Guidotti delivered baby Oliver in an ambulance.
When they got to the hospital, Oliver was given up through California’s Safe Surrender Program. He was taken home by a foster family the following day. (KGET)
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Exposure to common chemical preservative during pregnancy may reduce protection against breast cancer
Low doses of propylparaben – a chemical preservative found in food, drugs and cosmetics – can alter pregnancy-related changes that may lessen the protection against breast cancer that pregnancy hormones normally convey, according to University of Massachusetts Amherst research.
Hormones produced during pregnancy not only allow breast tissue to produce milk for the infant, but also are partly responsible for a reduced risk of breast cancer in women who give birth at a younger age.(UMass)
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First 5 Kern was established in 1998 when California voters passed Proposition 10, which levied a 50-cent tax on tobacco products. Revenues generated from the tobacco tax are used to fund local programs in the areas of health and wellness, early childcare and education, and parent education and support services that promote early childhood development for children ages zero to five.
For more information on First 5 Kern and the agencies we support, please visit www.First5Kern.org and follow us on social media.
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Special thanks to Vecteezy for assistance on graphics
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