How Do Kids Really Learn?

This is from a CBS.com article from an interview with Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, author of "Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How our Children REALLY Learn - And Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less."  I have been reading this book and sharing information with Davis Early Intervention staff.  It is very intriguing. 

Parents are told that we have the power to make our children smarter by playing certain music, or buying specific toys, or signing them up for special activities. Unfortunately, in our quest to help our kids be successful, we are running ourselves - and our kids - ragged.

Psychologist Kathy Hirsh-Pasek has some good news for exhausted parents: allowing your kids free time to play may be the best thing you'll ever do for them. With Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, she has written a book called, "Einstein Never Used Flash Cards: How our Children REALLY Learn - And Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less."

She explains that kids need free time to play so they can discover their own creativity; playing and talking with your children will aid their development more than anything else you can possibly do, as well. Hirsh-Pasek visits The Early Show to offer four simple things you can do to help develop your child's creativity and further their learning.

Eat Dinner Together: Over dinner, the family has 20 minutes or so to talk with few interruptions. "These occasions become contexts for learning," Kathy writes. "We sequence our daily events to recount them, encouraging the development of memory and narrative." When you ask kids about their days, their answers require some creative thought. Kathy cautions that you must ask specific questions. Did you paint at school today? What did you draw? What colors did you use? What did your friend Jenny draw? Was it fun? From these answers your child is not only developing memory and narrative, he is talking about colors and shapes and feelings and friends. Dinner is also a great opportunity for you to model behavior for your kids.

Find Unstructured Family Time: Dinner is a predictable, fairly structured activity. Set aside other times to play together as a family. Decree a game night or go for a walk. On your walk see what catches your child's eye and talk to her about it or make up a story about it. This is an opportunity for your child to let her imagination run wild and for you to be along for the ride. Remember to let your child remain in control of play time, follow her lead.

Read Aloud: Don't underestimate the importance of reading to your kids - the National Academy of Education Commission on Reading says that reading aloud to children is the single most important activity for ensuring success in learning to read. But just reading is not enough - you need to really engage your kids. Ask them questions about what they see on the pages, what they think may happen next and how they think the characters are feeling. And don't just ask questions you're certain they can answer. Push them a little bit beyond what they can do on their own.

Limit TV And Videos: Parents hear this all the time; it's not a surprising piece of advice. However, what is a bit unusual is that Kathy extends this advice to include educational TV and videos such as "Sesame Street" and "Barney." TV is not inherently bad, she explained, but it is passive. Your child learns more by doing than by watching. Kids watching TV don't come up with fantasy games; they are not interacting with other kids. They are being handed entertainment instead of learning to entertain themselves.

Book Study and Special Education Records Announcement

The Utah Parent Center and the Utah State Board of Education Special Education Section are facilitating an Online Book Study on February 21st, 28th, and March 7th.  If you are interested, follow this link to register: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07eeugh3dn87d5f922&oseq=&c=&ch= 

The book being discussed is Mindset by Carol Dweck.  Study notes, discussion questions, an online link and a free book will be mailed to those who register prior to the online discussion meetings.  The discussions will be held from 7 - 8 pm each evening.

This discussion is specifically for parents of children with disabilities.

Parents urged to pick up records

Parents of special education children who were born in 1991, or who graduated in 2012, may request their student’s special education records from the Davis School District.  Written requests to obtain records should be sent to: 

Davis School DistrictKathy Chisholm, Special Education DirectorP. O. Box 588Farmington, Utah 84025-0588 Email:  kchisholm@dsdmail.net

Parents of Davis County students who received EI/Early Intervention Services (services during years birth to age 3 years), and were born in 2009, may now request their student’s EI records.  Written requests for EI records should be sent to:

Davis School DistrictMandy Zeschke, Early Intervention Services (EI) CoordinatorP.O. Box 588Farmington, Utah 84025-0588Email:  mzeschke@dsdmail.net

All requests must be received by March 2.  Records will be destroyed after this date.

Another Critical Legislative Issue

As you know, the Medically Complex Children’s Waiver, is a pilot program for children 0-18yrs old, who live at home, do not receive Medicaid currently, have an SSI designation, and complex medical needs (disabilities involving multiple body systems with very frequent hospital stays, surgeries, clinic visits, therapies, and continuous support for daily living). The waiver gives families an opportunity to use Medicaid as a secondary insurance and receive respite services. It’s literally been a lifesaving for families who would otherwise be bankrupt or homeless because of the excessive cost of caring for their child’s medical needs. HB 100 is the bill to continue this as an ongoing program in Utah.  It passed favorably out of the house, and now moves to the senate.  If you are aware of families who are using MCCW or would be eligible for the waiver, please share the following alert from the MCCW FB page. This bill must pass out of the Senate Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee to be considered by the full Senate. Emails from providers would be good too. The committee meets tomorrow morning so calls and emails need to go out TODAY! I’ve attached the talking points for HB100.

*Action Needed* - Ok everyone we are in desperate need of help. HB100 has been assigned to the Senate Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee. This is not the committee that would typically be assigned to this type of topic. These Legislators are not very familiar with MCCW and some may not have heard of it at all. If HB100 does not pass out of committee with a favorable recommendation the program dies. We are going to need everyone to step up and help more so than ever.
1. Call, email and meet with every member of the committee. There are 500+ kids on this program which means these Senators should be getting hundreds of emails and phone calls about the program (I’ll post contact information below).
2. We must have people show up to the Capitol on Monday during Senate floor time and help pull members of the committee off the floor and talk to them in person. These face to face meetings leave an impression that cannot be expressed in an email and there is no guarantee an email even gets read so we must talk to them.
3. We need lots of people to testify in Committee on Tuesday February 13th at 9:00 am Room 215 Senate Building. So far we’ve had maybe 12 people total testify out of 500. What kind of message does that send? We have to pack that room! We get it, you’re busy, it’s early, but if you want this program to continue you have to show them it’s important to you.
Please share far and wide. We need to work together to make this happen.

Senator Jacob Anderegg
janderegg@le.utah.gov
Mobile 801-901-3580

Senator David Buxton
gbuxton@le.utah.gov
Mobile 801-707-7095

Senator Karen Mayne
kmayne@le.utah.gov
Home 801-232-6648

Senator Ann Milner
amillner@le.utah.gov
Mobile 801-900-3897

Senator Wayne Niederhauser
wniederhauser@le.utah.gov
Mobile 801-742-1606

Senator Ralph Okerlund
rokerlund@le.utah.gov
Mobile 435-979-7077

Senator Jerry Stevenson
jwstevenson@le.utah.gov
Mobile 801-678-3147

Budget Request HB100

Medically Complex Children’s Waiver

Background

• History of Medically Complex Children’s Waiver (MCCW)
• During the 2015 General Legislative Session HB199 was unanimously passed.
• HB199 (2015) was a 3 year pilot program that directed the Department of Health to apply for a Medicaid waiver for children with disabilities and complex medical conditions. Without further funding the pilot will sunset in 2018.
• HB199 (2015) was appropriated $3.2 million of one-time funds “to be used in similar amounts over three years with the goal of serving a similar number of clients over three years.” An additional $1,000,000 of one-time General Funds was appropriated to the program during the 2016 General Session.
• MCCW provides children and families with approximately 3 hours per week of respite and enrolled children have access to services covered through the traditional Medicaid program.

Enrollment

• The Department of Health held three open application periods since the program was authorized in 2015 (October 2015, May 2016 and May 2017).
• This waiver serves the following population:
• Children ages 0-18
• Children who have 3 or more specialty physicians
• Children who have 3 or more organ systems involved in their disability
• Children who have a SSI Disability Designation through the SSA or a disability determination by the State Medical Review Board.
• The program currently serves approximately 580 children.

Outcomes

• The Department of Health estimates that the general fund program per member per month (PMPM) is $322.50. In stark contrast with the annual cost of $169,000 to $200,000 for a child who has been institutionalized.
• Approximately 84% of MCCW enrollees have private health insurance coverage that is the primary payer, therefore allowing for lower MCCW appropriation expenditures than originally anticipated.
• MCCW allowed Local Education Authorities (LEAs) to maximize their state dollars to draw down federal Medicaid funds for required services. “Once children were enrolled in the MCCW, the LEAs only needed to pay the state matching funds ($307,330) for school based services rather than shoulder the entire cost ($1,022,011). With the availability of federal Medicaid funding, this program resulted in $714,680 of state fund savings.
• MCCW families have reported improved outcomes through reduced medical debt, increased ability to pay for basic household necessities, improved employment, reduced need to forego or delay child’s needed treatment and reduced out of pocket expenses.
• The ability to utilize respite care has decreased families’ feelings of isolation, reduced feelings of neglecting other important family relationships, increased ability to cope with caring for medically complex child and decreased feelings of being completely overwhelmed.

Request for On-Going Funding

• $2.25 million on-going General Fund
• Using the estimated PMPM and assuming enrollment at current levels to maintain the program on an on-going basis.

Families’ Experiences

The following are excerpts from letters written by parents of children enrolled in the MCCW. Used with permission of the families.

“We cannot express adequately how MCCW has changed our lives for the better.  We have 2 medically complex children and before MCCW we were drowning in medical debt and accruing more medical debt every year despite both parents working full time, having an advanced degree, and private health insurance coverage.  We worked hard and saved for years to purchase a home, but everything always had to go to medical bills.  Now after 18 ½ years of renting a tiny duplex we have been able to purchase a home.   This in and of itself has significantly improved our well being and brought a great deal of relief.  The children can now have friends over because there is room and we don’t have to constantly worry about the landlord raising the rent or other things beyond our control.   Knowing that we don’t have to choose which life saving medications to forgo each month because we cannot find a way to pay for them has been an unspeakable relief.  Now we can get the medications, procedures, and equipment that our children need, but were previously out of our reach.  We are able to be better associated parents, family members, employees and community members because all of our time and energy isn’t taken up juggling the crushing finances with our children’s care.  We are immensely grateful for this program and the enormous burden it has lifted. We honestly cannot imagine going back to life without MCCW.”

 

                                                                                                                                                                       

“I would like to share my gratitude for the MCCW. I remember the first time getting a prescription filled after getting MCCW coverage. It literally felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I could not stop smiling when I walked out of the grocery store… Before the MCCW came along I didn’t know how I would be able to pay some bills some months… Being able to pay bills, and get supplies that normally aren’t covered by our primary insurance is a huge blessing; as is not stressing out about all the many copays. We are very grateful for the help and hope this MCCW continues. We don’t know where we would be without it.”

 

                                                                                                                                                                             

“MCCW has helped our family in many ways? Before the waiver, we were struggling to get by paycheck to paycheck. We are a family of five, and my husband has a good job, but the cost of formula, diapers and medications for our disabled daughter was really taking a toll; especially as she grew out of diapers available from Huggies and Pampers and we had to start ordering adult diapers. Even with insurance helping cover a portion of some of these expenses; it was difficult to stay afloat. Since getting the waiver, our family has been able to start the process of building an accessible home, which has been much needed for years…We will finally have a home that suits our needs and accommodates our whole family…The stress of budgeting, juggling appointments, managing prescriptions, making phone calls, fighting insurance, and worrying about your child’s health is incredibly taxing. Having the waiver has helped me become a better mom because I’m not constantly wondering if we will run out of money for food because we had to refill my daughter’s prescriptions or whether or not I will be able to pay the copays for her doctor’s visits. It’s given me a little wiggle room.

 

How Caregivers Can Boost Young Brains

Adapted from research by the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University and from resources developed by Filming Interactions to Nurture Development.

When adults react and respond to young children’s babbles, gestures, and cries, they are doing more than providing good, nurturing care. They're actually laying the groundwork for children's future growth and development — helping to build the neural connections in the brain that support communication and social skills. 

Ordinary back-and-forth interactions between a caregiver and child — called "serve and return" — can shape brain architecture in powerful ways, creating a strong foundation for future learning. Here are five simple ways for parents, daycare providers, and early educators to practice these interactions.

1. Notice What Grabs Your Child's Attention

Is your child looking or pointing at something? Making a sound or facial expression? Moving her arms and legs? Pay attention to what she is focused on. Look for small opportunities throughout the day — while getting dressed, or waiting in line at the store — to share these moments.

Why? By noticing her “serves,” you’ll learn a lot about your child’s abilities, interests, and needs. You’ll encourage her to explore, and you’ll strengthen the bond between you.

2. Respond with Support

Return the serve by responding to your child. Offer comfort with a hug and gentle words, offer help, or acknowledge what he's doing. You can make a sound or facial expression — saying, “I see!” or smiling and nodding to let him know you’re noticing the same thing. Pick up the object he’s pointing to and give it to him.

Why? Your responses reward a child’s interests and curiosity. When you respond with encouragement to his actions, he knows that his thoughts and feelings are heard and understood. Never getting a response can actually be stressful for a child. 

3. Name It

When you return a child’s serve, name what she is seeing, doing, or feeling. This interaction can form important language connections in her brain, even before she can talk or understand your words. If a child points to her feet, you can also point to them and say, “Yes, those are your feet!”

Why? When you name what a child is focused on, you help her understand the world around her and learn what to expect. You give her words she can use herself.

4. Keep It Going, Take Turns

After you return the serve, give your child a chance to respond. He may repeat the same noise or action, or make a different one. The volley can be quick (from the child to you and back again) or can last for many turns. But waiting is crucial, since children need time to form their responses.

Why? Taking turns helps children learn self-control and how to get along with others. By waiting, you give the child time to develop his ideas and build his confidence and independence. Waiting helps you understand his needs, too.

5. Practice Endings and Beginnings

Children will let you know when they are done or are ready to move on to a new activity. They might let go of a toy, turn to look at something else, walk away, or say “All done!” It’s okay when this happens. Watch your child to see what your next shared point of focus will be.

Why? When you can find moments for a child to take the lead, you support her in exploring her world — and you make more serve-and-return interactions possible.

Simple serve-and-return interactions make everyday moments fun and enriching. By taking ordinary moments during the day to play serve and return, you build the foundation for children’s lifelong learning, good behavior, and good health — and build their skills for facing life’s challenges.

New Information Regarding the Baby Watch Budget

UPDATE!!!  Baby Watch has been removed from the list of proposed cuts!  We appreciate our families and their support!

Baby Watch is on the agenda for Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee (SSAC) this Friday 2/2 at 8 a.m. The committee will be hearing performance updates from UDOH on building blocks funded during the 2017 session which include BWEIP. As you may know, Legislative Fiscal Analysts have proposed cutting $3M in ongoing funding from BWEIP and backfilling it with $3M in one-time money while UDOH pursues possible private insurance funding to replace the ongoing state dollars.  The legislative audit of BWEIP recommends “a cost-benefit analysis of private insurance utilization,” to secure additional sources of stable revenue for the program. The audit did not recommend that additional revenue be used to replace state funding that has already been appropriated to the program. Last year, $2.7M in ongoing funding was appropriated to the program to address years of unfunded growth.

The audit reports that BWEIP has reached its capacity.  BWEIP currently serves 2.75 percent of the 0-3 population in Utah, “well below the national baseline of 4.97 percent.”  The audit also found that Utah is providing “far fewer service hours to eligible infants and toddlers,” based on a survey of 25 states in 2015.  The last thing we need is a reduction in ongoing support for the program.

It would be really helpful to have a few FAMILIES there to speak in support of the program and emphasize that any additional revenue, such as private insurance, should be used to enhance the program and serve more children. If you would be interested in speaking to the Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee, please contact Debbie Benson prior to 1 p.m. Thursday to get on the list.

Debbie Benson 801.326.1698

dbenson@le.utah.gov

You can also send emails or make calls to members of the SSAC. Below is a link to the Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee page where you can find members, meetings, agendas and meeting materials.

https://le.utah.gov/asp/interim/Commit.asp?year=2018&com=APPSOC

  

Thank you for your support of the children and families served by Utah’s Baby Watch Program! Feel free to contact me with questions. 

Mandy Zeschke

mzeschke@dsdmail.net

801 402-5403

Please Contact Your Legislator

We are well into the Legislative Budget Determination Time and even though we thought this legislative session would be uneventful for Baby Watch Early Intervention, a very concerning development has been brought to our notice.  That development is what I want all our parents to be aware of.

Using the Colorado example from the legislative audit of BWEIP, Russel Frandsen suggests that we could replace $3M in State General Fund with private insurance funding. Even if this were possible, it would take years to implement and requires changing the law.

 Below is the Utah Policy article that specifically references the Baby Watch program as one of the programs recommended in the $162 M in budget reductions. 

"In no uncertain terms, rank-and-file GOP House members were told by their leaders Tuesday they had better take seriously the $162 million suggested cuts to the state’s “base budget,” or the money-saving process will just be scrapped.

In an open caucus Tuesday afternoon, four leaders told their 62 members that the Legislative Fiscal Analyst Office’s work is important.

The LFA is taking a lot of heat from various state agencies and their program supporters over the suggested cuts, now being debated in the Legislature’s various budget subcommittees.

You can see a budget summary and the proposed cuts to the base budgets here. Scroll down until you hit the “base budget considerations,” and all those below that headline are the suggested cuts that individual budget subcommittees are now considering.

Some of the proposed cuts are controversial and have strong supporters inside and outside of the Legislature.

Like cutting $1 million from the popular Baby Watch program.

Until last year, GOP leaders asked the various subcommittees to “cut” 2 percent from the current year’s base budgets – a chore that fell in part on the House and Senate co-chairs to come up with those proposed cuts.

So those elected folks “cut” the budgets, only to see the Executive Appropriations Committee restore about all of them later in the session.

It was politically unpopular work – and the chairs, UtahPolicy.com is told, were getting heat from agencies and special interest groups.

Since that 2 percent process wasn’t resulting in any serious budget cuts – in theory, made to save taxpayers money on outdated or no longer needed programs – leaders decided to have their own budget staff, politically neutral experts in the programs/budgets, come up some “cut” ideas.

That’s the $162 million list linked to above -- $33 million in one-time revenue surpluses, and $128 million in ongoing tax-funded programs.

But, it appears in the early days of the 2018 Legislature, some budget subcommittees are not taking those suggested cuts seriously, leaders said.

(Utah is unique among the state legislatures, all 104 lawmakers here sit on a budget subcommittee. Most other states have small, special appropriation committees who set the budget.)

“Our (LFA) is scrubbing those budgets and seeing legitimate cuts,” said newly-appointed House budget vice chair Mike Schultz, R-Hooper.

The proposed cuts, based on merit, are real, he said. But added that “politically” the GOP lawmakers – who control the budget process – may not want to make some of those cuts when the final budget is set in early March.

Leaders expect “a good, vigorous debate” on the cuts assigned to individual subcommittees, said Schultz. “Take these suggestions seriously.”

“Our staff is taking a lot of arrows,” he added.

House and Senate leaders have already taken some of the LFA’s suggested cuts off the table, knowing lawmakers would never approve of them and not wanting to set some special interests hair on fire.

For example, said Schultz, $135 million in class size reduction – an original LFA suggested cut – was not sent to the Education Budget Committee – no way that popular program (which has questionable results) would be cut.

House Speaker Greg Hughes, who is retiring at the end of this year, said lawmakers may not ultimately want to spend the political capital to make some of the suggested tough cuts.

“But we are going to have some uncomfortable conversations” inside the budget subcommittees, said Hughes, because it’s lawmakers job to look for taxpayer-funded savings.

“This process won’t last unless we do our part on these (LFA) recommendations,” said Hughes."

Here is what you can do.  Executive Appropriations will pass a base budget next week.  We need providers and families to contact legislators and ask them to hold Baby Watch harmless from base budget reductions. 

To see the members of the Social Services Appropriations Committee go to this link and click on Members:

https://le.utah.gov/asp/interim/Commit.asp?Year=2018&Com=APPSOC  You can click on the individual names to find contact information.

To see the members of the Executive Appropriations Committee go to this link and click on Members:

https://le.utah.gov/asp/interim/Commit.asp?Year=2018&Com=APPEXE.  Again, you can click on the individual names to find contact information.

Multiple parents contacting their legislators results in messages being heard and influencing the outcome.  Please let your voice be heard.

A Few Things

The Utah State Legislature has authorized the TC-40D tax form to be used again this year.  This form allows families to claim a child eligible for early intervention as an additional dependent on the state taxes.  It is a form you keep with your records.  I will be emailing the form to eligible families in the next couple of weeks.  If your child was eligible for early intervention in 2017 and you don't receive a form by the last week of January, please let me know.  I don't have a report on our data base that lists all children enrolled or eligible during the year.

I have recently heard about the Olive Osmond Hearing Fund and wanted to share with you!  This is a fund that promotes hearing-health awareness and accommodates the needs of the deaf and hard-of-hearing.  They provide quality hearing aids to the deaf and hard-of-hearing, provide resources, share inspiring messages, experiences, examples and role models.  If your little one is in need of hearing help and your family has no other resources to acquire hearing aids, you can fill out an application and submit it from the website.  Check out the Olive Osmond Hearing Fund on Google for more information.

Please remember that if anyone in your family is ill and you have a home visit scheduled, contact your provider and let them know what is going on.  We strive to keep everyone healthy (our Early Intervention family and yours) throughout the winter months and all year long.  We want to provide your family the services your child needs in a healthy, happy environment.  The service provider will be able to determine if they feel comfortable coming into your home, so please contact them to let them know if someone in your family isn't feeling well.