July 27, 2023 Resources for August Observances Various organizations, states, and nations recognize a number of observances each month. Resources help parents, caregivers, and child care professionals acknowledge and navigate them. Here is a list of resources for August observances: Month-Long Observances Summer Sun Safety Month CDC Shares Sun Safety Tips for Schools, Trying Together Allegheny County Shares Summer Safety Guidance, Trying Together Summer Safety Brochure, Allegheny County Health Department, Trying Together Sun Safety, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Be Safe in the Sun, American Cancer Society Sun Protection, American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Sun Protection Tips for Those with Black and Brown Skin, Boston University Sun Safety and Prevention, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM) August is National Immunization Awareness Month, Trying Together National Immunization Awareness Month, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Recommended Vaccinations for Infants and Children, Parent-Friendly Version, Birth through 6 Years, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Vaccines for Your Children By Age, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Spanish / Español Vaccines for Children (VFC) Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month National Center Releases Guide on Children’s Eye Health, Trying Together An Eye Health Information Tool Kit for Parents and Caregivers, National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health Eye Health and Safety for Kids, National Eye Institute (NEI) Get Free or Low-Cost Eye Care For Children, National Eye Institute (NEI) Eye Conditions and Diseases, National Eye Institute (NEI) Spanish / Español 6 Ways to Be Proactive About Your Child’s Eye Health, John Hopkins Medicine Keep an Eye on Your Child’s Vision, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Resources for Parents of Blind and Low-Vision Children, Library of Congress: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled Parenting Without Sight: What Attorneys and Social Workers Should Know About Blindness, National Federation of the Blind How to Get Free Audio Books for the Blind and Visually Impaired, The Braille Institute 25+ Children’s Books Featuring Visually Impaired Characters, WonderBaby Back to School Month Allegheny Child Care What is Allegheny Child Care? 2023-2024 Kindergarten Registration Information, Trying Together Top 10 Skills for Children Entering Kindergarten, Trying Together Your Child is Going to Kindergarten: Family Guide (ECLKC), Trying Together Kindergarten Transition: A Guide for Families, Trying Together National Breastfeeding Month Breastfeeding Resources, Breastfeeding Center of Pittsburgh, Trying Together Breastfeeding Classes August is National Breastfeeding Month: This is Our Why, U.S. Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) Lactation Support, Healthy Start Center for Urban Breastfeeding (HSCUB) Breastfeeding, Kids Plus Pediatrics Pittsburgh Black Breastfeeding Circle (PBBC) Breast Feeding Resources, Birth Doulas of Pittsburgh Weeks of Recognition August 6 – 12 is Exercise with Your Child Week Childhood Physical Health: Resources, Trying Together Play and Physical Activity Guide for Educators & Families, Trying Together Supporting Childhood Physical Health: A Guide for Families: The Importance of Exercise, Trying Together Using Play to Support Children’s Physical Health, Trying Together Air Quality Tips and Training Available for Families and Educators, Trying Together Physical Education Vocabulary for Kids, Trying Together Resources for Supporting Physical Activity, Nutrition, Play and More, Action for Healthy Kids Promoting the Physical Health of Boys (and Girls), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Days of Recognition August 1 is National Night Out (NNO) National Night Out Returns to Pittsburgh, Trying Together City of Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety About National Night Out National Night Out Resources August 9 is National Book Lovers Day Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Releases 2023 Best Books for Babies List, Trying Together Toolkit: Families and Schools Partnering for Children’s Literacy Success, Trying Together 2023 Virtual Summer Learning and Literacy Road Trip, Trying Together Children’s Books on Race and Equity, Trying Together Books to Celebrate Gender Expression, Inclusion, and Pride, Trying Together Children’s Books About Transitions, Trying Together Children’s Books About Mental Health, Trying Together Restaurants Add Books to the Menu with Summer Reading Programs, Trying Together August 15 is National Back To School Prep Day 2023-2024 Kindergarten Registration Information, Trying Together 101 Back-to-School Tips for Parents and Kids, Care.com Back-to-School Tips, HealthyChildren.org 10 Considerations Before Going Back to School as a Parent, Parents Magazine August 26 is Women’s Equality Day Family Guide: Gender and Gender Identity, Trying Together Women’s Equality Day, The National Women’s History Alliance Women for a Healthy Environment (WHE) The Pittsburgh Women’s Alliance Women’s Issues Support Groups in Pittsburgh, Psychology Today The Women and Girls Foundation
July 21, 2023 Vision to Learn Mobile Optometrist Visits for Children Vision to Learn’s Mobile Clinic will be visiting the Hill District Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh on Wednesday, August 9, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. to provide free eye exams to children and teens ages four – 18 with parent/guardian permission. Appointments will take 15-20 minutes and must be scheduled with the branch in advance of the clinic. Where: Hill District Branch – Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, 2177 Centre Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15219 To make an appointment, contact 412.281.3753. .
Vision to Learn Mobile Optometrist Visits for Children Vision to Learn’s Mobile Clinic will be visiting the Woods Run Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh on Tuesday, August 8, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. to provide free eye exams to children and teens ages four – 18 with parent/guardian permission. Appointments will take 15-20 minutes and must be scheduled with the branch in advance of the clinic. Where: Woods Run Branch – Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, 1201 Woods Run Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15212 To make an appointment, contact 412.761.3730.
August 30, 2019 National Center Releases Guide on Children’s Eye Health In celebration of Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month, the National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness is offering a newly revised guide for families to monitor their child’s vision health. About The National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health supports the development of a public health infrastructure to promote and ensure a comprehensive, multi-tiered continuum of eye health and vision care for young children. In support of family education, the Center released a revised version of its resource: A Guide to Vision Health for Your Newborn, Infant, and Toddler. The guide highlights up-to-date information on a variety of topics, including visual development milestones, warning signs, strategies to help develop a baby’s vision, and more. To read the guide, visit their digital PDF page. Learn More To learn more, visit the National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health website. *Information provided by the U.S. Department of Education
July 18, 2019 Eye Contact with Babies Increases Information Coupling A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concludes that shared eye contact increases information coupling between infant and adult brains. About Communication is a fundamental part of life, especially when considering the early learning and development of a newborn child. In conversation, we use different types of social signals, both verbal and non-verbal, to share meaning with others. These signals can include things such as mimicking facial expressions, vocal tone, and eye contact. However, a recent study concluded that eye contact in specific can be a powerful tool to increase information coupling between infants and adults. Information Coupling In the study, researchers state that “previous research indicates that when communication is successful, close temporal dependencies arise between adult speakers’ and listeners’ neural activity.” Through these dependencies, an individual that’s communicating with another person can have varying levels of influence on the other person’s neural activity. In short, this coupling acts as a form of “social connectedness,” where the actions, reactions, and expressions of a person impacts how another person’s brain responds. For adults interacting with young children, using social signals such as direct eye contact can bring the child and adult’s “brains into temporal alignment, creating a joint-networked state that is structured to facilitate information sharing during early communication and learning.” Temporal alignment between adults and infants is important, as it “plays a vital role in supporting early learning across multiple domains of language, cognition, and socioemotional development.” Infants spend a lot of time looking at the faces of others, interpreting the way their facial features move, where their eyes shift to, and how their voices sound. And as they rely on these social cues to interpret meaning in their daily life, direct gaze is thought to be one of the most important cues for individuals and infants to infer communicative intent. Babies prefer to look at the face people who are looking right at them, with direct gaze even reinforcing the social responses that babies produce and their ability to recognize face-related information. Conclusion In conclusion, adults working or living with infants should consider using direct eye contact frequently with their child. Whether an adult is playing with, reading with, bathing, or even singing a nursery rhyme to a child, shared eye contact can act to build strong communication and information sharing between the two. To learn more about the importance of speaker gaze, read the full report. Article Citation Leong, Victoria, et al. “Speaker Gaze Increases Information Coupling between Infant and Adult Brains.” PNAS, National Academy of Sciences, 12 Dec. 2017, www.pnas.org/content/114/50/13290.
