Learn The Signs. Act Early

As an early childhood educator or child care provider, you spend your day working with, playing with, and watching children, and you are already familiar with many developmental milestones – such as pointing at objects, smiling, and playing with others – that mark a child’s development.

All children are unique, but sooner or later, you will see a child who is not developing as they should. You are a valuable resource to parents! They look to you for information on their child, and they trust you. The “Learn the Signs. Act Early” campaign has created a series of resources to help you educate parents on the full range of child development.

To order the FREE Early Childhood Educator Resource Kit, and for more information and tools for tracking child development and early developmental milestones, visit www.cdc.gov/actearly.

Submitted by: Mary Clark, Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Please remember that you can always call our Inclusion Specialists, who can come out to your program/home to do a visit. They can complete a general observational visit or they can observe a specific child with parental permission. They are also available by phone or email for consultation and can direct you to or provide additional resources for yourself or your families.

Do You Have a MOPD ID Yet?

A MOPD ID is your Missouri Professional Development Identification, formerly known as PARS (Professional Achievement and Recognition System) In the future, this number will be necessary to register for clock hour trainings.  Get your MOPD ID here!

This data system streamlines data collection for Missouri's quality initiatives (e.g., Quality Rating System (QRS), Accreditation Facilitation) and child care licensing.

The goal is for all training records to be available electronically from one source. This will prevent the need for staff to submit training and education information each time they or their program participates in a quality initiative. It will also prevent fraud associated with paper clock hour certificates, and it will save licensing representatives time needed to look through certificates on site every time they visit.

Being a PARS participant has a number of additional benefits including:

Receipt of a Missouri’s Education Matrix - chart indicating your level of training and/or education.

The ability to track and update your education and training through OPEN’s secure, on-line system

For more information visit: http://www.openinitiative.org/, click on the “Projects” button on the left, the PARS Enrollment form is located on the left hand side along with the instructions.  To just obtain a MOPD ID, use this link. 

Free Lending Library Available

Child Care Aware ® of Central Missouri has a wonderful and FREE resource library available to you and your families. The library includes books on topics such as curriculum, child development, special needs, as well as brochures, videos and DVDs.

Materials can be checked out for 30 days. Some interesting titles available include:

The GIANT Encyclopedia of Preschool Activities for 3-Year Olds

The GIANT Encyclopedia of Monthly Activities: For Children 3 to 6

GIANT Encyclopedia of Arts & Craft Activities: Over 500 Art and Craft Activities Created by Teachers for Teachers

The GIANT Encyclopedia of Science Activities for Children 3 to 6: More Than 600 Science Activities Written by Teachers for Teachers

The GIANT Encyclopedia of Circle Time and Group Activities: For Children 3 to 6

ADHD in the Young Child: Driven to Redirection: A Guide for Parents and Teachers of Young Children with ADHD

Solutions for Early Childhood Directors: Real Answers to Everyday Challenges

Challenging Behaviors in Early Childhood Settings: Creating a Place for All Children

Feel free to drop by the Columbia office between the hours of 8:30 and 4:00 Monday through Friday to look at our materials. If you're unable to come to the office during those hours, give us a call at 800-243-9685, and one of our Early Childhood Specialists can probably bring you materials when they are in your area!