HEAD START®

Caring for Children with
Chronic Conditions

Training Guides for the Head Start Learning Community

Table of Contents | Preface | Introduction | Module 1 | Module 2 | Module 3
| Continuing Professional Development | Resources

Module 1: Next Steps - Ideas to Extend Practice

Module 1 | Activity 1 | Activity 2 | Activity 3 | Activity 4 | Next Steps

1. Search the WWW for Resource Information

In order to understand the affect of a chronic illness on a particular family, one must listen to the family and its experience of the illness. It can also be helpful to get additional information about the condition. One excellent source of information about resources is the World Wide Web (WWW; also called the Web).

• Learn how to use the Internet to search the Web to find information and resources about a specific chronic condition. Several sites on the Web have very useful and practical information.
  
  
• First you need access to a computer that can connect to the Internet via a dial-up service provider (e.g., Slipnet.com or Sprynet.com) or an on-line service (e.g., America On-Line or Prodigy) and a web-browser (e.g., Microsoft Explorer or Netscape) that allows you to access information on the Web. If there is no computer at your program, community resources such as libraries or schools might provide Internet/WWW access.
  
  
• Discuss with the family any issues that they may have regarding the illness. Is there a specific illness or issue that they would like to have more information about?

You can search the entire Internet for a specific topic, such as childhood asthma, or for a general topic, such as children's health. Using your on-line service to access the Internet will allow you to use a search engine (e.g., Yahoo, Excite, Lycos, Hot Bot) to look for a link to relevant documents or a Web site that covers your topic.

Many Web sites will allow you to do additional searches for information contained at that site. For example, using your search engine, if you enter a search for "children's health," you will retrieve thousands of Web sites. From there you can choose to go to one particular site, for example, KidsHealth.org. Once at KidsHealth.org, you can search for "asthma" and retrieve even more documents, from published articles to helpful hints on handling emergencies.

You can print out this information and share it with the parents or you can use the information to make handouts to share with staff members and other parents in your program.

The best way to learn about the Internet is to sign on-line and surf the Web!

Trainer's Note:

The WWW is rapidly growing and more and more individuals and organizations are creating home pages; practically anyone can design a home page. So, information and resources retrieved from sites should be viewed with caution; some information may be more reliable than others. Medical information retrieved from a Web site should be reviewed by the Health Services Advisory Committee before it is shared with parents and staff.

Much of the health information on the WWW is public domain, which means it can be reproduced. However, always verify whether information you retrieve is protected by copyright laws before distributing it to staff and parents.

2. Share the Information You Found on the WWW

Are there other ways that these skills can be useful to your program?

• Check with other programs, parents, or staff to see if they know of any other Web sites about children's health, a specific condition, or parent networks.
  
• Search the Web for support groups for parents of children with specific conditions. There may be statewide support groups for families of children with special needs. Parent support groups on the Web may be particularly helpful for parents of children in rural programs, who feel isolated in dealing with their child's chronic condition. There may be an Internet news group (sometimes called Usenet groups) that will allow parents to exchange information with other people with similar issues. On-line providers, such as America On-Line, may also have similar discussion groups.
  
• Train other staff on how to access information from the Internet and the Web.