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Information Corner

Information and Updates for Parents



Chicken Pox Vaccines Family Leave Legislation The Good News &
Bad News About Child Care 		Infant Hearing Tests
How Babies Learn Language New Tax Breaks
for Parents?		 Paid Family Leave? Things You Should Know
About Salmonella


Paid Family Leave?

It may become easier to obtain PAID maternity or paternity leave. On May 23, 1999 President Clinton asked the Secretary of Labor to enable states to offer unemployment benefits to individuals on family leave. Federal law already requires most employers to allow workers up to 12 weeks leave after the birth or adoption of a child, or for a family medical emergency. The employee's job may not threatened and his medical leave must continue without interruption.

According to the National Partnership for Work and Family, providing unemployment benefits to individuals on leave would spread the cost so that employers would only bear a small part of the burden. It would cost the company only $1.25 per employee, per week.

Four states: Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Washington, already have such plans.
(posted 7/3/99)
(Sources: Children's Defense Fund; National Partnership for Work and Family)


Things You Should Know About Salmonella

Summer is the prime time for kids to contract bacteria-related illnesses such as Salmonella, which causes diarrhea, vomitng, and fever. These bacteria thrive in heat! As temperatures soar, this is the ideal time for parents to update their knowledge about this risk.

Most parents are aware of the danger of Salmonella from undercooked or improperly handled meat. But results of a recent study reported in Pediatrics indicate that young children may be as much at risk from environmental contaminants in their homes.

The researchers studied the homes of fifty children under age four infected with Salmonella. They examined cultures from such things as foods, family members, appliances, countertops, and pets. Salmonella was found in 38 percent of these homes. The contaminated areas were the dirt around front doors, pets, family members, vaccuum cleaners, and refrigerator shelves. Only one item of food, on the other hand, was found to harbor Salmonella.

    General guidelines for preventing Salmonella:
  • Never leave perishable food out of the refrigerator for more than two hours, or an hour in hot weather.
  • Avoid leaving food in overheated cars. Do not leave groceries in the car longer than it would take to melt ice cream. If possible, avoid placing a cooler, or other food container, in the trunk.
  • Wash hands carefully before and after handling food.
  • Scrub EVERYTHING that touches raw meat with hot water and soap.
  • Pay close attention to areas of the house that your child touches or puts in his mouth.

(posted 7/4/99)
(Sources: Redbook; Health Quest magazine.


Chicken Pox Vaccines

Chicken pox vaccines have been available for several years. In Virginia, they will soon be mandatory. Effective July 1, 1999, Virginia law requires parents to have their twelve-month-old babies immunized with the Varivax vaccine. The vaccine was approved for use in the U.S. in 1995. It is considered seventy-five percent effective varicella zoster (chicken pox), and the side effects are minimal.

About eighty percent of kids experience this highly contagious viral illness, characterized by red bumps and blisters, fever, and stomach pain. While chicken pox is not life-threatening in most cases, it can lead to serious, even potentially fatal, complications. These include skin infections, pneumonia, and central nervous system infections. As many as a hundred children die each year, in this country, as a result of this disease.

The vaccine is recommended at twelve months of age by the American Academy of Pediatrics and Family Practice. However, not all pediatricians concur with this recommendation. Some say the disease is much more dangerous in children over ten and adults than in small kids. Minimizing the incidence of chicken pox in the general population may only make people more vulnerable to infection later in life, when the consequences are more dire.

The new legislation requiring chicken pox vaccines is sponsored by Rep. Brian J. Moran. It requires that all children born on or after January 1, 1997 receive the immunization not earlier than the age of twelve months. Children who have evidence of immunity as demonstrated by laboratory tests or a reliable medical history of disease are exempt from this requirement.
(posted 5/24/99)
(Sources: Virginia Legislature citizen's web site; www.physicianschat.com ; www.parentsoup.com)


Health Care Coverage for Routine Infant Hearing Tests?

If a piece of proposed legislation passes, Virginia health insurers, HMOs, and Medicaid will be required to provide coverage for infant hearing screenings and all necessary follow-up diagnostic audiological examinations. This proposal, by Sen. J. Randy Forbes, has been presented, in a letter, to the Senate's Special Advisory Committee on Mandated Health Benefits.

According to the University of West Virginia's otolaryngology department, modern technology makes it possible to test the hearing of infants as young as ONE DAY OLD. According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the average age a hearing-impaired child is diagnosed is TWO-AND-A-HALF YEARS OLD. Early intervention is essential, so the child can receive professional help, including hearing aids, EARLY so his disability will not interfere with normal speech and language development.
(posted 5/24/99)
(Sources: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Virginia Legislature citizen's web site; www.hsc.wvu.edu.som.otolaryngology.)


Want more info on proposed legislation? Express your opinion to your representatives? CLICK HERE TIP: click on "Who's My Legislator" for helpful information and links.


Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Update

(posted 5/24/99) The rules may become a little easier for state employees in Virginia, but the legislation designed to do that has been put on a shelf. This legislation, sponsored by Rep. George Grayson, would allow an employee needing time off to care for a new child or a sick family member to substitute up to 50 percent of his accrued paid sick leave for leave, under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Current law only allows use of 33 percent of this accrued paid leave time. As of February, 1999, this bill has been passed by indefinitely in the Appropriations committee of the Virginia House of Representatives.

The FMLA permits eligible employees to take up to 12 work weeks of unpaid leave in a 12-month period for the birth of a child or the placement of a child for adoption or foster care, to care for an immediate family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a serious health condition, or when the employee is unable to work because of a serious health condition. Subject to conditions established by the employer, the FMLA also permits employees to substitute paid leave for unpaid FMLA leave.
(Source: Virginia Legislature citizen's web site)

State Child Care Income Tax Credit Proposed


Working parents may get a break on their state taxes, if a current piece of proposed legislation passes. The child care income tax credit, sponsored by Sen. Janet D. Howell, is available to families with yearly incomes under $150,000. It provides a tax credit for taxpayers who incur eligible child care expenditures for dependent children under age 13. The maximum amount of the credit for one child is $600, and for two or more children is $1,200.

The percentage of the credit is based on the taxpayer's highest marginal income tax rate. For a taxpayer with a Virginia taxable income of $28,000 or less, the percentage of the credit is twice his highest marginal income tax rate; for a taxpayer whose income exceeds $60,000, the percentage is equal to his highest marginal income tax rate.

As of February, the bill is being considered by the Senate Finance Committee.


(Source: Virginia Legislature citizen's web site)

Child Care Study

(posted 6/17/99)A number of studies have been conducted, in recent years, to examine the influence of child care on the development of infants and young kids. This is the good news and the bad news about child care. The good news: most studies indicate a young child in quality day care is at no disadvantage compared to peers with stay-at-home parents. The bad news: there are not enough quality child care centers.

One study of 400 child care centers (Cost Quality and Child Outcomes Study Team, 1995) measured how child care centers met young kids' needs in four areas: health, safety, warm relationships and learning. ONLY 14 % of all child care centers evaluated were rated as "developmentally appropriate." Twelve percent of these centers were so poor that they were unsanitary, children's safety was at risk, or caregivers did not respond to kids' efforts to communicate.

Services for the youngest children fared the worst. Forty percent of infant and toddler rooms were found to be inadequate.

Unsurprisingly, the study found the quality of children's day care experiences had a significant effect on their social and mental development and on their developing academic ability


(Source: National Child Care Information Center bc/)

How Infants Learn Language

Babies begin learning language long before they utter their first words. As researchers work to unravel the mystery of how - and when - infants learn to speak, they validate the important role parents and caregivers play. Even small babies benefit from being in language-rich environments, in which they are talked to often.

According to Lila Gleitman, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, language recognition becomes evident around 7-8 months of age. A six-month-old baby will listen just as long to an adult speaking to him in a foreign language. A nine-month-old baby, on the other hand, shows a marked preference for hearing his own language spoken.

Around 15-18 months of age, most children learn a new word about every three days, increasing to about ten words a day by 18-24 months, according to Gleitman. In the second half of the first year, understanding of sentences also emerges.

Some child psychologists believe the ability to understand sentence structures develops even earlier than that. Gary Marcus, a researcher at New York University, found evidence that infants as young as 7 or 8 months of age are already learning how words are put into sentences. He exposed the infants in his studies to "nonsense" words in varying three-word patterns. (For instance: "LA-LI-LA," "LA-LI-LI," and "LA-LA-LI." Later, he presented these babies with more three-word nonsense "sentences." Some were patterns the babies had already heard; some were new. Ninety percent of these babies paid more attention to sentence patterns they'd heard before, indicating they were remembering sentence structures.

According to psychologist Amanda Woodward at the University of Chicago, a 13-month-old baby might say about 5-10 words, and an 18-month-old may have a vocabulary of 100 words. At this time, the child experiences a "vocabulary spurt." Up until this point, he has associated words with their meanings in much the same way Pavlov's dogs were conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell. As he enters the "vocabulary spurt," he develops a more sophisticated understanding of the meanings of words and how to use language.

Some researchers, including Amanda Woodward, believe that the amount of time a parent or caregiver spends talking to a baby has an important effect on his developing vocabulary and - ultimately - on his level of intelligence. On the other hand, many researchers tell us not to worry too much about stimulating children's verbal ability.

"For the first three years, you can't go wrong, unless you lock them in a dark closet," says Lila Gleitman. The children will be successful in learning to speak.

Mastery of written language is not so automatic, Gleitman says. Reading to young kids, and teaching them ABC's, do have an important impact on their reading and writing skills.

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT, AND HOW CAN YOU HELP YOUR BABY LEARN LANGUAGE? FOR MORE INFORMAION ON INFANTS' LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT, AGES 0-1, CLICK HERE

(Sources: The Why Files; New York University; University of Chicago )





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