Mount Sinai Parenting Center

10/28/2026

🎃 Halloween can be exciting for families—and overwhelming for toddlers.

At your next visit, help caregivers plan a celebration that fits their child’s comfort and routine. Share these three tips:

👕 Comfort comes first. Suggest a simple costume that fits over regular clothes. Skip itchy fabrics, restrictive outfits, and masks that may feel hot or scary.

👻 Make the spooky stuff familiar. Toddlers can have trouble telling real from pretend. Encourage families to read Halloween books, explore what masks are made of, or practice trick-or-treating at home.

🌅 Keep it short and sweet. Recommend dinner first, heading out while it’s light, and getting home in time for bedtime."

10/21/2026

Sometimes the most helpful guidance you can offer a caregiver is permission to pause before trying to fix a hard feeling.

When a child is upset, caregivers may feel pressure to make the distress stop. During visits, help them recognize the value of staying calm, acknowledging the feeling, and remaining present. That steady support gives children opportunities to learn that difficult feelings are manageable—and that they don’t have to face them alone.

A phrase to share with families:
💬 “This is hard. I’m here with you, and we can work through it together.”

Remind caregivers that staying steady takes practice. They don’t need perfect words; they can start by slowing down and showing their child that their feelings matter.

At your next visit, ask: “What helps you stay calm when your child is upset?”

10/16/2026

Practical tips for pediatric providers—delivered right to your phone. 📱

Lantern Families and the Mount Sinai Parenting Center have teamed up to bring you one short, actionable tip by text each week—without adding to your inbox.

Get ideas to support positive parenting, strengthen parent-child relationships, and turn developmental science into simple guidance you can share with families at your next visit.

Text HCP to 274 448 or sign up at bit.ly/4B5vgU4

10/14/2026

A costume can be a conversation starter about child development. 🎃

With Halloween approaching, you can use visits to help families recognize what children practice through pretend play: imagination, problem-solving, language, and understanding how others might feel.

Three ideas to share with caregivers:
🦸1. Keep it simple. Dress-up doesn’t require a store-bought costume. Everyday clothes and objects can inspire a whole new character or story.
🚀 2. Join in with curiosity. A question like “Where is your spaceship headed?” invites children to build the story and practice language.
✨ 3. Let the child lead. Choosing roles and deciding what happens next gives children opportunities to practice making decisions and build confidence.

At your next visit, ask: “What does your child like to pretend to be?” Then, help caregivers name the skills they’re seeing in those everyday moments.

10/12/2026

📣 New publication in Academic Psychiatry!

How are Canadian general psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry residency programs preparing physicians to support infant and early childhood mental health?

A new study of Canadian psychiatry residency program leaders found uneven training opportunities—even as all respondents recognized the importance of this education. Among the nine participating program directors, limited formal teaching and faculty expertise emerged as barriers, alongside strong interest in scalable, self-directed learning.

For clinicians and medical educators, the findings invite reflection: Where does infant and early childhood mental health fit into your training program?

We’re pleased to share this collaborative research highlighting opportunities to strengthen residency education. Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/4B1tkf5

Objective Infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) is increasingly recognized as relevant to psychiatric practice; however, its integration into psychiatry training in Canada remains unclear. This study examined how IECMH education is currently delivered within Canadian general psychiatry an...

09/28/2026

Thank you, ! What an incredible weekend in Atlantic City! To everyone who stopped by our table, joined our seminar, or pulled up a chair at the breakfast round table, it was wonderful meeting you and hearing all about how you’re supporting families. We loved learning all about how family medicine faculty and residents are already using Keystones! If we met this weekend and you want to keep the conversation going, send us an email at [email protected]!

09/24/2026

The data is in, and it's more reassuring than the headlines 📊
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Seventeen longitudinal studies followed the same children from before the pandemic to years after, across six countries, infancy through adolescence. The finding: effects were real, but mostly small to moderate, and most kids are recovering. Those who continue to struggle often had risk factors that predated the pandemic, which makes them a key focus for screening and support.
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As a provider, you can try: "The research on kids after the pandemic is really encouraging. Tell me what you're noticing, and we can figure out next steps together."

In case you missed it, make sure to check out the full speaker series session, "What the COVID Pandemic Did - and Did Not Do - to Children" with Dr. Anna Johnson, Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University and Principal Investigator of multiple NIH-funded studies on how children's early contexts — especially school — shape their environment: https://bit.ly/4hmX0dB

09/04/2026

Transitions can be tough for young children—especially when time cues like “five more minutes” are still abstract.

Help families make the next step concrete and predictable:
Instead of: “We’re leaving in five minutes.”
Try: “Two more trips down the slide, then we’re walking to the car.”

Instead of: “Hurry up.”
Try: “Shoes first, then we open the door.”

What language do you share with families to make transitions easier?

08/31/2026

We’re heading to Atlantic City! 🎉

Keystones of Development from the Mount Sinai Parenting Center will be at the FMEC Annual Meeting from September 25–26.

Join us Saturday for two sessions exploring practical ways to integrate early childhood development and relational health into everyday family medicine:
📍 7–8 AM: Promoting Early Childhood Development: Free Resources and QI Collaborative
📍 9:15–10:15 AM: Weaving Relational Health and Child Development into Everyday Primary Care

And be sure to stop by our exhibitor table to say hello and learn more about our free resources for supporting providers, residents, children, and families.

Will we see you at ?

08/26/2026

📱 Screen-time conversations aren’t just about kids.

A new prospective study in JAMA Pediatrics found that greater primary parent smartphone use was associated with slower receptive vocabulary growth in children ages 5–7—even after accounting for baseline language skills and family socioeconomic factors. Most other measures of screen use were not associated with language growth.

For providers, this is a reminder to consider the whole family’s digital environment. Encourage parents to protect everyday opportunities for back-and-forth conversation, shared reading, and storytelling—interactions that help build language.

How are you incorporating family screen habits into your well-child visits?

🔗 Read the full article: https://bit.ly/4glPwbQ