Overview of Community Service Providers
Need information on resources to support the families you work with? Help Me Grow stays up to date on developmental and community resources so you can spend your time directly working with families!
As a service provider, you play a significant role in strengthening families and ensuring that all Vermont’s young children reach their full potential. Help Me Grow will partner with you to help ensure that parents and caregivers are connected to resources and services that will assist them in raising healthy and happy children. Help Me Grow connects families with young children served by you to basic needs, high quality parent education information, and developmental resources - including tools to support your conversations with families about their child’s development and learning. Trained child development specialists are available to answer your questions about available community resources and take referrals on behalf of prenatal parents and families with children up through age eight. Refer a child and family by dialing 2-1-1 ext. 6
Developmental Monitoring & Screening for Community Service Providers
In Vermont, community service providers provide developmental screening using standardized developmental screening tools. Preferred screening tools are included in Vermont’s Universal Developmental Screening (UDS) registry, a comprehensive screening, data collection and communication system that ensures all Vermont children’s development is monitored over time and across settings. The registry enhances collaboration among health care providers, early educators and community service providers for earlier identification of developmental concerns. Learn more about how the UDS registry can support your monitoring, screening and referral efforts at Vermont Department of Health. To request access to the UDS registry call 802-951-1218 or email at AHS.VDHudsregistry@vermont.gov.
Milestone Tracker: CDC’s FREE app helps parents track developmental milestones and more!
Educate and empower parents to learn about, support, and track their child’s development from age 2 months through 5 years with a free app offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Access a printable poster (8.5” x 11”) for your clinic, a web button for your website, and more. Additional information about the app is located at the CDC Milestone Tracker.
Milestones in Action
Skills such as taking a first step, smiling for the first time, and waving bye-bye are called developmental milestones. Children reach milestones in how they play, learn, speak, act, and move (crawling, walking, etc.). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed milestone in action photos and videos of important developmental milestones, view them here!
Translated Materials
Vermont has translated the Milestones Brochure into several languages: Arabic, Bosnian, Burmese, French, Nepali, Somali, and Swahili (PDFs attached). Find more translated materials here.
How Community Service Providers Help Strengthen Families
Developed by the Center for the Study of Social Policy, this unifying framework is unique in its approach to identifying the five protective factors that strengthen families' ability to raise well-adjusted children. The Strengthening Families framework is being used across the nation and in Vermont to support early care and learning programs to engage parents in their children’s development and help them build strong relationships between family members and staff. Read the Protective Factors Action Sheets which provide an overview of the five protective factors, as well as specific advice on how to implement each one.
Toolkit: Fostering Health Social and Emotional Development
Fostering Healthy Social and Emotional Development in Young Children Toolkit from The U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services and Too Small to Fail. This set of resources on healthy social and emotional development includes a Tip sheet for infant, toddler, and preschool providers and educators.
Exploring Gender Development in Children
This issue of The Right Stuff: Resources to Help Realize the Promise of Each Vermont Child features resources that range from welcoming each child and providing inclusive environments to guidance related to developing gender identity, supporting transgender children, and preventing gender bias. There’s also an annotated bibliography of children’s books about gender diversity. Issues of The Right Stuff are posted online here.
Vermont Guiding Principles
The Vermont Guiding Principles are a set of guiding principles for the full participation of each and every child and their family in early childhood settings. Resources, tools and checklists to support implementation of the Vermont Guiding Principles can be found here.
