Funded Projects

Little Stars / Estrellas Pequenas Project

Project Year

2024

City & State

New Brunswick, New Jersey

Program Name

CATCH Implementation

Topic

Child Development/Developmental delay

Program Description

PROBLEM: Many families living in New Brunswick and North Brunswick townships face multiple challenges to optimal early childhood development and these challenges have been compounded by the pandemic. 32% of families in New Brunswick and 8% of families in North Brunswick and have incomes below the poverty level. 54% of families in New Brunswick and 48% in North Brunswick speak a language other than English at home. In both towns a majority of families belong to racial and ethnic minorities. All of these factors have been shown to be associated with barriers to access to services, and inequities in development and school readiness in children. In our outpatient sites we see many children with language delays, and inadequate school readiness skills, which are known risk factors for poor academic, and long term socio economic and health outcomes. Parents often report excessive screen time and infrequent shared reading with their children. We often encounter reluctance to referrals for Early Intervention and other services.   PRIMARY SETTING: We will conduct parent workshops on early childhood development at the North Brunswick Township Early Childhood Center (NBTECC) in North Brunswick, New Jersey. NBTECC provides free preschool services for students 3-5 years, including children with special needs. Mr. Scott Passner, the principal of NBTECC has been a strong  community partner with the pediatric residency program at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) on several community projects in the past. We will recruit families from NBTECC, and will also partner with the Mobile Family Success Center to recruit families from neighboring communities.   NUMBER OF CHILDREN AFFECTED: We are aiming for 20 parent-child dyads per session over a course of 10 sessions (total 200 parents and 200 children).  PROJECT GOAL: To support parents in promoting optimal development in early childhood and empower parents to seek help early if concerns arise.  We plan to do this by:  1. Increasing parents skills in engaging in fun and developmentally stimulating activities with their child during their everyday lives, to promote early relational health, and school readiness. 2. Providing tools and resources for parents to bolster their child’s development 3. Increasing parents' awareness of developmental milestones and the importance of monitoring development  4. Increasing parents' awareness of resources for children with developmental concerns 5. Empowering parents to act early and to speak to pediatricians about developmental concerns.  PROPOSED INTERVENTION:  We will conduct monthly workshops at NBTECC. Children (2 months to 5 years old) and their parents will be invited to these workshops. Workshop content will be developed in consultation with parent leaders, so that they are culturally appropriate and useful in this community, and will be facilitated by pediatric resident leaders. The workshops will be interactive with opportunities to learn from other parents as well as from the workshop facilitators. We will include discussions on developmental milestones and activities to promote those milestones at different ages and stages. Parents will learn to use the CDC’s Learned the Signs/Act Early materials, and other resources to identify and address developmental concerns with healthcare providers. We will discuss community resources both for promoting development as well for detection and early intervention for developmental issues. We will give out age-specific toys and model how to best play with children in an interactive fashion. We will have interactive reading sessions demonstrating Reach Out and Read’s tips on fun and engaging dialogic reading. We will provide healthy refreshments as well.   ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES - Increase in shared reading, interactive play at home - Increased parental understanding of developmental milestones - Increased utilization of community resources such as local libraries - Increased parental awareness of resources and services for developmental delays and concerns  

Project Goal

To support parents in promoting optimal development in early childhood and empower parents to seek help early if concerns arise through conducting parent workshops.

Project Objective 1

Increase parental comfort with recognizing developmental milestones (as assessed by rating on a 1-5 scale on pre/post surveys) by 10% over the course of the year. 

Project Objective 2

Increase number of days per week that parents read to their children by 1 day per week over the course of the year.

Project Objective 3

Increase  parental awareness of community resources that are available to assist children with developmental delays (as assessed by rating on a scale 1-5 on pre/post surveys) by 10% over the course of the year.    

AAP District

District III

Institutional Name

Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Contact 1

Usha Ramachandran, MBBS (MD)