Our Work
The Mount Sinai Parenting Center has developed a series of free resources to support providers in promoting positive parenting behaviors and strong parent-child relationships that are important for early childhood development.
The Mount Sinai Parenting Center has developed a series of free resources to support providers in promoting positive parenting behaviors and strong parent-child relationships that are important for early childhood development.
While the science is clear on the importance of the early parenting environment from birth to age five, routine pediatric care does not sufficiently provide parents with the tools and information they need to support and encourage their child's social, emotional, and cognitive development. Recognizing a gap in training for frontline providers with access to families in the earliest years, we have created a suite of free, comprehensive and easily accessible resources to demonstrate how primary care providers can promote children's brain development and help create nurturing parenting environments. These resources include the Keystones of Development Curriculum, Newborn Education and Discharge Class, in depth modules on sleep, toilet training and discipline, and a faculty training module to support preceptors in training residents on these topics.
Parents are surrounded by healthcare spaces and workers in their earliest years, and what they learn through these early interactions can help shape the parent they become. In partnership with VROOM, a program of the Bezos Family Foundation, we created hundreds of physical messages to transform hospital spaces and an interprofessional staff training to spark brain building moments during existing interactions. This includes a robust catalog of integrated design elements and a training program for interdisciplinary staff in all parent facing roles.
With greater demands on their time than ever before, primary care providers are overwhelmed by the volume of information they are tasked to deliver at each check-up. As such, we have developed a series of materials to extend the provider reach beyond the allotted time, and allow for richer and deeper conversations with families during limited face-to-face interactions. This includes the Sparks Parent Video Series, Caring for Your Newborn discharge education class, a robust collection of parent handouts, and our Provider Tip of the Week.
Integrating the promotion of early relational health and early childhood development into the field of medicine requires constant collaboration and organization. The Mount Sinai Parenting Center is committed to advancing the field of pediatric primary care, better equipping providers with the tools they need, and enacting systemic change to meet the growing needs of families and children. We influence the field through innovative research and program evaluation, publication, and presentation and collaborative workshops at local and national conferences.
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