VIP Co-Founder and Chief of Pediatrics at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue Dr. Benard Dreyer recently published an article, “The Death of George Floyd: Bending the Arc of History Towards Justice for Generations of Children” in Pediatrics discussing the importance of racial equality for the health of future generations. Dr. Dreyer has also served as past President of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2016. In the article, the authors point out how pediatricians can use their power to deconstruct racial injustices. Working closely with families and children gives pediatricians a unique opportunity to play a role in working toward an equal society for the well-being of future generations of children. The authors also provide suggestions for policies that if implemented could lead to effective changes.
 
Despite past tragic events, similar to ones happening today, society has more or less maintained the “status quo”– until now. Individuals and communities are coming together to stand up for the critical changes needed for a racially just society. One way healthcare workers have showed up for the patients they care for was by forming Pediatricians Against Racism and Trauma (PART) last year. PART is comprised of over 60 pediatrician leaders from across the country, including VIP Co-Founders Dr. Alan Mendelsohn and Dr. Benard Dreyer, who call for policy changes and action. As stated in the article, structural racism lays the foundation for many injustices to be built upon. Some of those injustices include: bias in the delivery of care to Black children and families, bias in medical schools and healthcare, mass incarceration of youth of color and the parents of children of color, discrimination against Black, Native American, and Latinx families in housing, education, and employment, microaggressions suffered by individuals of color during daily life, criminalization and detention of immigrant families at the border, and denial of benefits. These overwhelming injustices lead to a life of chronic fear and emotional trauma in children, youth, and families which is why change is so crucial. As the American Medical Association stated, “police brutality is a health issue.” Therefore, healthcare workers are in a vital position to play a part in leading the way toward change.

Not only do the authors of this article state where many issues lie, they also provide evidence-based policies for achieving successful changes. Those six policy recommendations are:

• bring “broken windows” policing to an end, which would remove the abundance of police cracking down on minor infractions in low income communities
• establish civilian oversight of policing which would hold officers accountable for doing their job, which is to “protect and serve”
• monitor local police “use of force” policies and end the militarization of the police department; demand investigations in instances of cases like George Floyd while empowering or even mandating officers to report actions of their fellow officers without fear of retaliation
• invest in recruiting diverse and community-based officers with rigorous training in appropriate safe interactions with the communities they serve
• prioritize government spending on community health, mental health, education, and housing rather than the police department

While this list is not exhaustive, it is comprehensive and offers opportunities for policymakers to carve a path towards justice so the children of tomorrow can thrive in a society that is not built against them. At VIP we support and stand with peaceful protestors in the pursuit of a better tomorrow. To read the full article click here: https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2020/06/23/peds.2020-009639

Society for Research in Child Development hosted a webinar this week, open for anyone to join, to facilitate a conversation about working towards antiracism in the developmental research community. SRCD is a professional society for the human development field, with a focus on child development. SRCD aims to understand human development in order to improve human well-being. (Wiley) It comes as no surprise that an organization rooted in studying and improving the lives of humans, particularly children, would be one to host this webinar. All in attendance had the opportunity to hear from three scholars about their experiences with racism and journey toward becoming antiracist.

Eleanor Seaton, PhD, began by speaking about the crucial role adults play in children’s learning of race and how at the young age of 3-4 years old they begin to grasp ideas about race. Dr. Seaton turned the conversation to Rebecca White, PhD, MPH and Margaret Caughy, Sc.D who shared their journeys on working toward antiracism as White women. A significant personal experience Dr. White shared was how she came to terms with understanding what privilege meant to her. Growing up poor she did not feel like she was privileged; however, she came to understand that socioeconomic status was not comparable to race. While the struggles of poverty affect families deeply, racism exacerbates those struggles even further.

The panelists also discussed how inequalities show up in research and ways in which White researchers could move towards change. Particularly in samples and measures, eurocentrism heavily occurs with an overwhelming amount of standardization of White or Western experience as the normative or default development. The scholars on the panel urge researchers to identify race in their work and to not take a “colorblind” lens. Racial differences matter to outcomes; however, Dr. Seaton also advised that race does not exist exclusively. The intersection of race, gender, age, class, and more all contribute to multiple systems of oppression. In order to create change developmental researchers must take on the duty of unlearning and relearning history, with the goal of being intentional in their work moving forward.
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As a part of our team effort to be active learners within our community, a number of our staff attended SRCD’s webinar. Afterward, team members took part in personal conversations and shared their thoughts and reactions in a safe (virtual) space with colleagues. As a community we continue to take steps towards becoming actively antiracist by promoting ways to educate young children about race on our social media, engaging in dialogue with one another, and participating in learning opportunities like this one.

In a recent news release the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) addresses the current movement that is happening to challenge injustices and discrimination faced by the Black community. In the statement, AAP President Sally Goza, MD, FAAP says there is “a growing body of research,” on the notion that racism is harmful to children’s health and, “…we cannot ignore the impact.” Children are receptive of their environment and may hear and see things that they don’t fully understand. They may have questions about the images and videos that are circulating and as a parent you want to be equipped to have a meaningful and informative conversation with your child, taking into consideration their age and what they can process.

Dr. Heard-Garris and Jacqueline Dougé, MD, MPH, FAAP have multiple recommendations on how parents can engage their child, especially during this pivotal time. They recommend checking in with your child about what they have seen or heard and validating their feelings. Watching for changes in their behavior is another way to support them during this time, particularly if they seem anxious, aggressive, or withdrawn. If you’re concerned, you can reach out to your pediatrician or a mental health provider. Place limits and supervise exposure to media – this is an important way to filter the amount and types of news your child is viewing. Check in with your own emotions and ask for support if you need it. Keep in mind there is no perfect way to have these conversations. There are resources available to provide guidance on how to find the “right” words to share with your child, including this article by HealthyChildren.org. To read the full AAP statement, click here.
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At VIP our hearts are with the Black community now and always. We stand for racial justice, equality and better childhood outcomes for future generations. We encourage parents to have these important conversations with their children, as they are never too young to learn about race. Books are a great place to start the dialogue and education about race with little ones. The future of our children starts at home.

​Video Interaction Project was recently mentioned in a Washington Post article written by VIP Co-Founder, Dr. Benard Dreyer and Professor of Pediatrics of NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Dr. Leonardo Trasande.

The article discusses ways the COVID-19 situation could have a lasting impact on children and what we can do now to support them during this stressful time to mitigate those impacts. Due to the current unfolding events children are more at risk for experiencing consequences later in life that include mental and physical illness. Research has shown that children are impacted by their parents’ stress and there is no doubt that the coronavirus has exacerbated household stressors. The strong emotions that are being felt by families experiencing hardship and loss have an effect on children, despite not being directly impacted by the virus.

The additional stress that has been felt across neighborhoods, states, and nations requires more support for families and children. The article describes the work that is done by VIP and how the use of video recordings and developmentally appropriate toys can support parents in engaging with their child in meaningful ways. These parent-child interactions can mitigate the difficult experiences families are otherwise facing. Programs like VIP provide parents with an opportunity to increase their parenting confidence and lower instances of parenting stress. When parents share quality interactions with their children, they are ultimately strengthening their child’s early development.

Parents can do their part at home to protect their children from additional stress during this time by being mindful of the topics of conversation children are witness to, keeping an open dialogue with their children, and creating a safe space for children to express themselves.

​At VIP we continue to work to provide compassionate support to the families we work with and provide them with the tools necessary to positively engage with their children.

To read the full article: click here.

The beginning of 2020 has been off to a very eventful start for us here at VIP! From our exciting expansions over the course of 2019, to welcoming new team members onboard over the past few months, to expanding to two more sites this spring, we have been busy at work to bring VIP to more children and parents than ever!

Over the last two months in particular our team has banded together to quickly develop plans to deliver VIP remotely in light of the COVID-19 situation. We understand that this is a difficult time and we are here to offer as much support as we can to our VIP families. With most of our team working remotely, we miss seeing your smiling faces in the clinic! However, we look forward to seeing them again soon as we have recently rolled out virtual programming. We have adapted our program to be delivered virtually by calling our families over the phone and video chatting to provide sessions and check in.

We want our families to know that we are here for you and have been working hard to gather information and resources to share with you. In partnership with Children of Bellevue, we have compiled a guide of almost 80 resources to connect you with important information. It includes many categories such as where you can get meals for you and your family to fun and educational activities you can engage your children with at home. You can view this resource guide by clicking this link.

Finally, we hope you are all staying safe and we want you to know we are thinking of you during this time. We look forward to speaking with you soon! Visit your site’s location page for information on how to contact your VIP Coach and get more information about scheduling your session with us virtually!

​Love,
​The VIP Team

In this time leading up to Thanksgiving, we want to take some time to reflect on some of the exciting ways that VIP has been growing recently, and to express our gratitude and thanksgiving to all of those who have helped to make this growth possible.

Five years ago, in 2013, we had been delivering VIP to kids and parents at one location in Manhattan, NYC H+H/Bellevue.  Fast forward to today, and our previously small group has grown into a VIP Center of Excellence that is now supporting delivery of VIP at eight locations across three states!  In the past year in particular, we brought VIP to 4 new locations in NYC: Children’s Aid Milbank Health Services in Harlem, NYC H+H/Gouverneur in the Lower East Side, NYC H+H/Elmhurst in Queens, and Sunset Park Family Health Center at NYU Langone 2nd Ave.
Not only that, but we have more exciting news in that in 2020 we plan to launch VIP at two more locations in New York City as well as in more locations in Pittsburgh! In NYC, we are thrilled be bringing VIP to NYC H+H/Queens in Jamaica, Queens, and Children’s Aid Bronx Health Services in the Bronx in the upcoming year – stay tuned for updates!

It has been an incredible journey to bring VIP to each of these locations in NYC. We have so much to be thankful for this year, and our hearts are overflowing with gratitude to the pediatric providers, administrators, staff, and of course the patients at each of these sites, who continuously express how much they value VIP.  We are thankful for our incredible team of VIP Coaches, supervisors, researchers, and Center of Excellence staff, all of whom we love working with every day.  And finally, we are thankful for the funders who have made all of this possible.  In NYC in particular, we are incredibly grateful to the Tiger Foundation, the Marks Family Foundation, the Stella & Charles Guttman Foundation, City’s First Readers (NYC City Council), NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, NYC City Council Members Stephen Levin, Antonio Reynoso, and Keith Powers, the NYU Langone Community Service Plan, Robin Hood, and NYC Health+Hospitals – all of whom are helping to support delivery of VIP in NYC.

Overall – we are thankful to be able to be doing what we love and to be bringing VIP to more and more kids and parents every day! Happy Thanksgiving!
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Love,
The VIP Team

Wow! To say that 2018 was exciting is an understatement!  Not only did VIP grow in many ways, but so many great things happened for our team members!

We are so proud of our team here at VIP, and over the past year several of our team members have had incredible opportunities in their careers and education, building on their time here.
Two of our phenomenal researchers, Drs. Adriana Weisleder and Carolyn Cates, who both originally joined our team as postdoctoral fellows, have both recently accepted and started faculty positions!  Dr. Weisleder is now an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University in the School of Communication, where she has recently opened and is directing the Child Language Lab within the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.  Dr. Cates is now an Assistant Professor at SUNY Purchase in the Department of Psychology.  We continue to work closely with Drs. Weisleder and Cates, and are excited to collaborate in the upcoming year!

In addition, many people on our team have been furthering their education.  Jenny Arevalo started on our team in 2008 as a Research Assistant, and over the past 10 years has worked as a VIP Coach, Senior VIP Coach and VIP Trainer/Supervisor.  Over the past several years, she has been pursuing a doctoral degree in School Psychology with a focus on Psychology of Bilingual Students, and is now focusing full time on her Ph.D. as she moves into the final years of her program in order to dedicate time to her dissertation and clinical training. Maritza Morales-Gracia, who started with our team as a Research Assistant for the Smart Beginnings project in 2016, began a doctoral program in education this fall at the University of California, Irvine with a focus on Human Development & Education Policy.  We are thrilled for Jenny and Maritza and can’t wait to see their next steps!

Adriana Chung, LCSW, has been working with us for the past several years as our outstanding Family Check-Up interventionist for the Smart Beginnings project.  She recently has been given the incredible opportunity to work with our collaborators at the University of Pittsburgh to deliver Family Check-Up to families in Pittsburgh as well as serve as a trainer and supervisor for new Family Check-Up interventionists.  We miss having her in New York City, but we continue to collaborate with her in her role as a trainer and supervisor!

Finally, it would be remiss to not also mention some of the educational achievements that our team members have accomplished in their ‘spare’ time.  Maya Matalon recently completed a Masters of Public Health at NYU, and Caroline Raak recently completed a Masters of Arts in Child Development from Sarah Lawrence University. Not only that, but Maya and Caroline were both able to build on the work that they are doing here for their masters theses!  In addition, Jennifer Ledesma has been over the past several years working towards a doctoral degree in School-Clinical Child Psychology from Pace University, while continuing to work part time with our team, which has allowed her transition to a Family Check-Up interventionist.  Maya, Caroline, and Jennifer each continue to utilize their education as they grow in their roles within our team.

We are so incredibly proud of these accomplishments, and while we are sad to no longer get to see Adriana W., Carolyn, Jenny, Maritza, and Adriana C. every day in person, we are also incredibly proud and beyond thrilled for each of them as they move forward with their careers and educations.  We continue to collaborate and work closely with them, and we know that huge things are in store for each of them in the future.  Their accomplishments are a testament to the incredible work that they have done during their time on our team.

Needless to say, this has been a busy year full of celebrations and send-off parties!

Exciting news - recent findings about VIP were recently featured in a New York Times column by Dr. Perri Klass! Click here to read more!

Lots of things have been happening here with Video Interaction Project! We have been steadily working on expanding to more locations so that VIP can reach more children in NYC and across the country.  A few months ago, we VIP started up at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Michigan – since then, 100 families have joined!  Next up – we will be starting VIP soon at the Children’s Aid Society medical center in Harlem in NYC! More information coming soon!!

This has been a busy and productive time, and we have also continued to be engaged in research about VIP and child development more broadly.  This week, we published some of our strongest findings to date in the peer-reviewed scientific journal, Pediatrics!

Our newest findings:
In this study, we looked at 450 children and parents who joined the study at NYC Health+Hospitals/ Bellevue as newborns and have been followed until they were four and a half years old, right before they were about to start school.  Some children in this study took part in VIP as babies, from when they were newborns until they turned three years old (‘VIP 0-3’).  Other children took part in VIP instead when they were preschool aged, from when they were three years old until four and a half (‘VIP 3-5’).  Still others participated in VIP the entire time, from when they were newborns up through preschool when they were four and half.  Finally, there were other children who did not participate in VIP at all.

At age four and a half, children who had been in VIP showed reductions in behaviors that could become problematic when the children start school – for example, attention problems, hyperactivity, and aggression. 

Impressively, these findings at four and a half years of age were present even for children who took part in VIP only when they were babies and then stopped when they turned three, meaning that the changes in behavior lasted for at least a year and a half after the program ended!  Also, children who started VIP when they were babies and continued as preschoolers had the largest reductions in problematic behaviors – both VIP 0-3 and VIP 3-5 separately contributed to these changes in behavior.

Take home message? VIP during infancy or during preschool years helps to reduce problematic behaviors before kids start school, with even larger benefits seen for kids in VIP from infancy through preschool!

Want to know more? Learn about our research here! Or check out this clip of Dr. Alan Mendelsohn on NYC's CBS Evening News!

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2018/04/09/health-watch-reading-attention-deficit-disorder-dr-alan-mendelsohn-add/

As we know at VIP, the crisis in Flint has to do with so much more than water.  In a recent article on the Hill, world-renowned developmental psychologist, Dr. Sandra Waxman, discusses how important and valuable it is to have high-quality early-childhood programs available to families in under-served communities like Flint.  As she says, the most effective programs are ones that, like VIP, begin early and involve coordinated and integrated support.  Through VIP, pediatric clinics help to provide parents with support and guidance beginning shortly after birth, and though the integrated City's First Readers network, VIP families become even more connected to other literacy resources in their communities.  

​Check out the link below to read Dr. Waxman's post:

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/269765-providing-flints-children-with-the-services-they-deserved