| Smart Start
On-Line |
Spread the word and help us get 100 fans on Facebook. Fan number 100 will get a special prize! |
| JOIN OUR LIST |  |
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Meet a Board Member | |
Name: Denny Nau
Position: Centre County Sheriff
Educational Background:
Williamsport Area High School
Why did you get involved with Smart Start?
As a member of Fight Crime
Invest in Kids, I wrote an editorial on the importance of funding early childhood education. Eileen Wise
read the editorial and invited me to join Smart Start. I jumped at the opportunity as Smart Start is another great way to engage our young Children, their parents, and
our community in promoting quality early educational programs.
Favorite Smart Start Projects: Healthy Minds
What are your goals for Smart Start in the future?
Promote the community benefits of early educational programs for our Children.
Where you live: Milesburg
Family information: Wife Sally, son Gregory, granddaughters Josselyn & Jayla, daughter Natalie |
| Smart Start Is ... | |
Smart Start-Centre County is a network of early care and education professionals, parents, and community leaders committed to giving children in Centre County the best possible start in life through education, information, activities, and outreach.
Staff and Interns
Eileen Wise, Executive Director
Kelly Johnson, Project Manager
Lauren Schultz, Intern
Ari Morris, Intern
Action Committees
Early Care & Education
Early Childhood Mental Health
Health & Nutrition
Parenting & Literacy
Transition Team
Board of Directors
Charlene Friedman, Chair
Rebecca Ardoline, Secretary
Sudha Babu
Patricia Best, Vice Chair
Melissa Clark
Doug Coatsworth, Vice Chair
Linda Duerr
J. Hugh Dwyer
D. Richard Francke
Rob Huffard
Denny Nau
Roxie Nestlerode
Jack Raykovitz, Vice Chair
Joseph Webber | |
| Resources | |
Better Kid Care offers a monthly enewsletter for child care professionals. Read back issues or subscribe here.
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Comcast's Internet Essentials program offers basic, high speed Internet access to low income families for an affordable rate of $9.95 per month. The program is available to families whose children qualify for free school lunches.
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| State Legislators | |
State Representatives
Kerry Benninghoff
Boroughs and Townships served: Bellefonte, Centre Hall, College, Gregg, Harris, Millheim, Penn, Potter, Spring, State College, Walker kbenning@pahousegop.com, 355-1300
H. Scott Conklin: Boroughs and Townships served: Ferguson, Halfmoon, Huston, Patton, Philipsburg, Port Matilda, Rush, South Philipsburg, State College, Taylor, Worth 238-5477/ 342-4872
Michael Hanna: Boroughs and Townships served: Benner, Boggs, Burnside, Curtin, Haines, Howard, Liberty, Marion, Miles, Milesburg, Snow Shoe, Union, Unionville 353-8780
State Senators
John Wozniak: Boroughs and Townships served: Philipsburg, Rush, South Philipsburg 266-2277
Jake Corman: Boroughs and Townships served: all other than Philipsburg, Rush, South Philipsburg 355-0477 | |
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| Committee On-line Reporting Forms | |
In-Kind/Volunteer Time:Report your volunteer time spent on Smart Start projects and committees. Transition Activities:Report any meetings, activities, publications, etc. with a goal of making connections for improved transition to kindergarten. |
| Disclaimer | |
Acceptance of advertising, announcements, and postings does not represent Smart Start's endorsement of any product, program, or service, nor is Smart Start responsible for representations made by others. | |
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Dear Smart Start Supporter,
We would like to get to know you better!
For many of our enews readers, we only have an email address. We are building a database and would like to fill in a lot of the blanks about who you are and why you are interested in Smart Start. So we are going to give prizes to 10 randomly-selected people who complete this simple online form by October 15:
Click Here
Have you registered yet? Deadline October 6.
Helping Young Children with Disruptive Behaviors for professionals
*****
Powerful Parenting Techniques for parents
*nationally known speaker*
*learn valuable skills and tips*
*affordable price*
*convenient location*
Download the brochure and registration form at www.smartstartcc.org.
Early childhood educators attending the parent workshop can also obtain PQAS and/or Act 48 credits for this workshop. There will be a $10 charge for processing Act 48 credits.
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Saturday, October 22
Professional Session, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon: Helping Young Children with Disruptive Behaviors: A Unique Approach. Cost: $40 (add $6 for a bagged lunch). (PQAS and Act 48 credits available, clinical practitioners may submit documentation to their licensing association for 3 hours of CE credit)
Parent Session: 1:00 - 4:00 pm: Powerful Parenting Techniques: Make the Most of Your Family Time. Cost: $15 (add $6 for a bagged lunch). Parents attending this session can receive $20 subsidy to help cover childcare costs.
Both sessions will be held at Mount Nittany Medical Center, in the Dreibelbis Auditorium. The presenter is Dr. Cheryl McNeil, a professor of Psychology in the Clinical Child Program at West Virginia University, co-author of several books on parenting practices and managing disruptive behaviors of young children.
For the children,
Smart Start Staff |
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Public Events and Meetings | |
Smart Start Committee and Board meetings are listed under the 'Committee Activities" section below.
October
October 1: Downtown State College Fall Festival. 10 - 3 on South Allen Street. Community Resource Fair, Best of Happy Valley Desserts Competition, America's Day for Kids.
October 4: Parent Brown Bag Discussion on Media and Your Family. Schlow Library Community Room. 12:00 - 1:30 pm. Free, with free child care available. To register, contact Connie Schulz at 231-1070 or ces11@scasd.org.
October 7: Free monthly child developmental screenings for children birth - age 5 at Schlow Library, 9:00 am - 12:00 noon. Come find out where your child is developmentally. Evaluations administered by certified therapists from area early intervention agencies. No registration necessary.
October 12 - November 16: Tuning in to Kids 6 Week Class on Raising Emotionally Intelligent Children. Schlow Library Community Room. 12:00 to 1:30 pm. Free, with free child care available. To register, contact Connie Schulz at 231-1070 or ces11@scasd.org.
Starting October 12: New Bereavement Support Group for those who have lost their spouse or life partner within the last two years. Eight weekly sessions on Wednesdays 3:30 - 5:00 pm, at The Village at Penn State Life Care Retirement Community. Please call Marie Radziak at 235-8906 to confirm attendance.
October 12: 6:00-8:00 pm: Discussion and Dessert. Penns Valley Transition Team invites all interested parents, school teachers and personnel, and early childhood educators to meet at Centre Hall Elementary Library. RSVP to pthornbloom@cdfc.org.
October 14: Project WILD Aquatic Workshop - conservation education curriculum for educators. Pre-registration is required. 9 am - 5 pm, Millbrook Marsh Nature Center, $15. Call to register at 814-231-3071 or visit www.crpr.org. Act 48 credits available.
October 19: Smart Start Parent Advisory Group Meeting, 9:30 - 11:00 parents of young children welcome - contact eileen@smartstartcc.org for an invitation. Child Care available.
October 22: Early Childhood Mental Health Speaker Series 2011 (see above)
Opening October 27: Parenting Plus Play Group - 12:30 - 2:00 pm, Bellefonte Youth Center, call 237-5731 for information. |
| Member Article: Rules Help Manage Children's Behavior |
 Lauren Schultz is a Penn State senior interning at Smart Start - Centre County.
- Q: "When things don't go my 4-year-old's way, he gets very defiant. How can I get some ideas for gaining his cooperation?"
A: At age 4, many children exhibit their developing independence in ways that parents find extremely challenging and upsetting. Smart Start - Centre County recognizes this as a common challenge for parents and caregivers and will sponsor a workshop Oct. 22 specifically designed for families to give them techniques and skills to help ease such problems.
Cheryl B. McNeil, a professor of psychology at West Virginia University, has focused her clinical research on helping parents manage disruptive behaviors in their children with her unique approach known as parent-child interaction therapy.
PCIT is an approach that can be applied both at home and in school. The method teaches parents how to improve their emotional attachment to their child while building behavior management skills to help improve their child's cooperation.
 McNeil maintains that keeping your composure and emotion in check is a necessary first step for parents. Try to empathize with your child and find out what is upsetting him. If your child continues to act out, ignore the disruptive behavior. If it continues or escalates, it may be best to remove your child from the situation. At a later time, when you and your child are calm, talk over the situation and try to problem-solve for the future.
McNeil also details another step in reducing defiant behavior - to implement consistent techniques at home with your child. Practicing techniques at home helps to set an example for how to act at school. Establishing defined rules and specific boundaries can help you and your child prepare for more challenging situations that may arise outside the home.
It is also important to explain your expectations to your child, so that he will know what behavior you expect and why it will benefit him and others. McNeil advocates practicing open communication between child and parent to create a more secure relationship.
In my own experience growing up, my mother repeated "treat people the way you want to be treated" to my brother and me more times than I could count, but it has been the best piece of advice I have ever received.
Sometimes we know when a tough situation is about to arise - most experts agree that the key is to prepare. Describe the steps and plan the event with your child so there are few surprises. For example, if the problem is getting ready for bed, choose a bedtime routine with your child's input and follow it consistently.
Parents can also encourage cooperation by noticing and praising specific cooperative behaviors. For example, saying "Good job cleaning your room!" is clearer than just saying "good job."
McNeil's workshop "Powerful Parenting Techniques: Make the Most of Your Family Time," will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 22 at Dreibelbis Auditorium at Mount Nittany Medical Center.
To participate, register by Oct. 6. For information and registration forms, CLICK HERE.
For more information about parent-child interaction therapy, visit www.pcit.org.
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| Volunteer Opportunities |  | |
Get a free registration for our October 22 Parent or Professional workshop with Dr. Cheryl McNeil by volunteering at the event. For more information, contact kelly@smartstartcc.org.
Check out our newly revised "Get Involved" page on the website for details about our volunteer opportunities.
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Child Health and Safety: Research Shows Loving, Attentive Mothers Make a Difference |
A new study has found that children raised in poverty were less likely to develop certain chronic diseases in adulthood if they had loving, attentive mothers from a young age.
Disadvantaged children grow up with stresses that can hurt their physical development and make them vulnerable to infection and disease for the rest of their lives. In adulthood, this often leads to metabolic syndrome -- high blood pressure, impaired regulation of blood sugar and fats, fat around the waist -- that are precursors to diabetes, heart disease and other chronic conditions.
Yet a significant minority of poor children avoid these negative outcomes as adults, and a team of researchers led by psychologist Gregory Miller at the University of British Columbia wanted to know why. So they looked at two common explanations, upward mobility and early parental nurturing to see if they related to metabolic problems later in life.
Their findings, to be published in next month's issue of the journal Psychological Science, showed that moving up the economic ladder in adulthood did not make these particular health problems less likely. What did improve the odds for avoiding metabolic syndrome, however, was a mother who paid close attention to her children's well-being when they were small, who was affectionate, caring and had time for them.
The results were not a complete surprise, said Mr. Miller, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology from UCLA, completed a clinical internship at Western Psychiatric Institute & Clinic and a post-doctoral fellowship in health psychology at Carnegie Mellon University.
"There's plenty of evidence on how kids in poverty are at risk for educational and mental health problems later in life, and lots of evidence that if a parent, teacher or other adult takes a great interest in them, it has lots of off-setting effects.
"What's new here is that this is all happening in the context of physical health problems that are so far away in time from the experience of childhood poverty and maternal warmth."
"The message is that the environments kids grow up in have implications for their health many years later," Mr. Miller said. "We are talking about people from disadvantaged backgrounds developing metabolic syndrome 50 or 60 years later when they reach the time of life when those conditions typically develop. Yet if they had a high level of nurturing, particularly from the mother, it can offset most of that risk."
This information, he said, could have implications for public policy.
"There might be things we can do as a society to make it easier for parents to be the kind of nurturing caregivers they want to be. For example, high-quality day care that's affordable for working families, more generous family leave policies to allow more than 12 weeks off after birth or more time off to care for a sick child." |
| Local News | |
To submit items for "local news" email kelly@smartstartcc.org.
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| Advocacy This Month: Centre County Commissioners to Proclaim October "Promise Month for Children" |
 | | PA's Promise 60 second Public Service Announcement |
Here are a few ways that you can celebrate - you'll find more ideas on the PA's Promise Month webpage.
Special Kickoff event at the Harrisburg Capitol The Early Childhood Education caucus of the PA General Assembly is holding a press event recognizing October as Pennsylvania's Promise for Children Month:
Wednesday, October 5, 10:00 - 10:30 am
East Wing Rotunda, Harrisburg Capitol
Co-chairs Senator Pat Browne and Representative Phyllis Mundy are scheduled to speak. Please join us and let your family, friends and colleagues know! The caucus has more surprises for you...
Send a letter to the editor to your local newspaper. You'll be able to reach thousands of families with the message that quality early learning matters. We have a number of template letters and instructions to get you started. If you need help, contact eileen@smartstartcc.org. Sending a letter to the editor is pretty simple, but can have a big impact.
Contact organizations and businesses that you work with and encourage them to post the logo and/or Public Service Announcement on their websites and share information within their networks. |
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| Committee Activities |
Health and Nutrition Committee Next meeting: Tuesday, October 11 from 9:30am to 11am at the Bennett Family Center, Penn State. Parking and entrance are at the rear of the building.
Early Childhood Mental Health Committee Next meeting: October 27, 9:00 - 10:00, Center for Child and Adult Development Office, 1315 W. College, Ste. 303, State College
Parenting & Literacy Action Committee Next meeting: October 19, 9:30 - 11:00, Schlow Library, State College
Early Care & Education Action Committee Next meeting
October 25, 8:30 - 10:00, Child Development and Family Council Office, 2565 Park Centre Blvd, Ste 100, State College Contact Person: Amy Wible at awible@cenclear.org.
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