July 7, 2025 Kidsburgh Provides Heat Safety Tips for Children This Summer While summer is a great opportunity to convince children to play outside, caregivers should also keep in mind health and safety tips for spending long periods of time in the sun, especially during a heatwave. Learn More When the heat index is above 90 degrees – as it has been recently in the Pittsburgh region – it poses a significant health risk for children, Kidsburgh wrote in a recent post on heat and sun safety. Children are much more susceptible to heat illness than adults as they have more trouble regulating body temperature. As a result, extreme heat can cause them to experience dehydration, heat exhaustion, or heat cramps or stroke. Some of these ailments can become medical emergencies. According to Kidsburgh, approximately 9,000 high school athletes are treated for heat illness every year around the nation. In a recent interview with Kidsburgh, Dr. Joe Aracri, chairman of the AHN Pediatric Institute, provided advice for parents of young children about sun and heat safety. His tips included: Use sunscreen, but for children under the age of six months it should not be used all over the body, but rather just the hands, feet, and face. For the areas not covered with sunscreen, cover the baby’s body with lightweight clothing and always use a hat. Keep babies in the shade as much as possible to avoid too much sun exposure. Put on sunscreen a half-hour before going into the sun so it can absorb and be effective once you go outside. Then, reapply it every two hours and after swimming. Keep children well hydrated with cool water and other hydrating beverages. Keep children indoors in a cool environment. If air conditioning isn’t available, have a fan circulating the air where a child is sleeping or playing. For asthmatic children, parents should look out for such signs as coughing, wheezing, and shortness or breath, and ensure that inhalers and allergy medications are immediately available. If a child is having trouble breathing, go to your local emergency department. To read the entire article, visit Kidsburgh’s website.
June 3, 2025 Kidsburgh Provides Advice on How to Talk to Children About Big Emotions Children often have big emotions or feelings and the challenge can sometimes be getting them to say how they’re feeling. As part of Mental Health Awareness Month, Kidsburgh has provided advice on how to talk about big emotions – whether it’s fear, embarrassment, frustration, or others – with children. Learn More For many toddlers, who are still trying to figure out how to form sentences, expressing emotions or even just tiredness can be difficult, Kidsburgh writes. The article notes that while it may be tempting to react with discipline or distractions when children act out, the root cause could be something else – such as emotional illiteracy. Kidsburgh notes that crayons, clay, music, puppets, or other forms of expression might ultimately help parents to build emotional vocabulary, rather than responding to outbursts with punishment or attempting to distract children from their source of bother. In the article, Dr Aileen Oandasan, an Allegheny Health Network psychiatrist, said that most children begin to learn simple emotion words around age two and this typically grows from ages three to 5. During this span of time, such basic emotions as happy, sad, or mad are “developmentally normal.” However, Oandasan says, emotional vocabulary depends on a variety of factors, including: A child’s temperament and development factors Parental factors, such as social or environmental conditions Reinforcement of emotional vocabulary by teachers and caregivers Oandasan goes on to say that art is an important tool for helping children to develop an emotional vocabulary. Suggested projects include feelings collages, creative art projects (painting, sculpting, or drawing), and play acting through the use of puppets or dolls that involve scenarios featuring emotionally provocative situations. To learn more, read Kidsburgh’s article, “How Do You Feel Today? Advice on Talking Big Emotions with Little Kids.”
January 13, 2022 Parents as Allies Webinars Join The Center for Universal Education at the Brooking Institution and Kidsburgh for their upcoming event, “Parents as Allies Webinars: Transforming Education Systems Through Family-School Collaboration.” About the Series The COVID-19 pandemic thrust family engagement into the spotlight, presenting an opportunity to markedly shift the overall vision for family-school collaboration. The Center for Universal Education (CUE) at the Brookings Institution has been researching how families and schools can better work together to improve and transform how education is delivered and what it can achieve. In addition, Kidsburgh has been working with a cohort of school districts on different family engagement strategies, including conversations asking parents and caregivers on what schools and families can do together. All events are free and will be hosted via Zoom. Registration is required. Session Information Tuesday, January 25 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. This session is recommended for school leaders and teachers. Join lead author Rebecca Winthrop to explore CUE’s newly released playbook on family-school engagement, featuring key findings from a global survey of 25,000 parents and 6,000 teachers and a review of more than 500 effective family engagement strategies around the world. After a short presentation, attendees and educators will work in virtual breakout rooms to discuss insights from surveys across school districts in southwestern PA as well as create a shared vision for education that can lead to transformation. Wednesday, January 26 | 7:00 – 7:45 p.m. This session is recommended for parents and caregivers. In this virtual webinar, KDKA TV’s Kristine Sorensen moderates a presentation and discussion with CUE’s lead author Rebecca Winthrop and Kidsburgh’s Ambassador Yu-Ling Cheng. Parents and teachers will learn about the findings from CUE’s playbook on family-school engagement as well as on-the-ground strategies that are being implemented across local southwestern Pennsylvania school districts. The session ends with a Q&A.
July 15, 2019 KidsPlay at Market Square KidsPlay provides free interactive and educational programming for children in Market Square, with local partners including Science Tots, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, KidsBurgh, the Senator John Heinz History Center, and more. Active Dates Tuesdays, June 4 – August 27, 2019 | 10 – 11:30 a.m. Saturdays, June 8 – August 31, 2019 | 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Learn More To see a list of upcoming activities, visit the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership website.
April 9, 2019 Month of the Young Child: Celebrating Early Childhood With Trying Together having designated April as the Month of the Young Child (MOYC), Kidsburgh asked Executive Director Cara Ciminillo to explain why access to high-quality early childhood care and education is so vital for our youngest generation. Overview In the article, Ciminillo explains why access to early learning and care is critical and moves on to discuss the roles of advocacy, policy, and investments. Identifying connections to Trying Together’s public policy agenda, Ciminillo explains that by successfully advocating for increased investments in early childhood, we’re working to ensure that all young children have access to affordable, high-quality programs; that all early childhood professionals are being compensated appropriately; and that all early childhood programs have access to the support they need to provide high-quality services. Article To read the full article, visit Kidsburgh’s website!
