Practical child care talk, from rubrics to persona dolls.
Inclusion Matters comes from the Center for Inclusive Child Care, whose Executive Director, Priscilla Weigel, talks with coaches, a pediatrician, state agency staff and partner groups. Its subjects include persona dolls, nutrition, a Minnesota special needs rate and how to talk with young children about race.
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Inclusion Matters is the podcast of the Center for Inclusive Child Care, and it sounds like what it is: an organization talking shop with its partners and its own staff. Each episode here begins with the Center's welcome, which names early childhood professionals, parents, grandparents and other caregivers as the people it works alongside. Priscilla Weigel, the Center's Executive Director, then introduces the guest, often as a friend or colleague. The guests are the point. Marie Lister, Director of Training for Young Hearts Open Minds, argues that children notice race at very young ages, and that when adults stay quiet, the silence itself teaches something. She lays out the program's premises. One is that its content is shaped in consultation with people of color and communities of color, not drafted by a few white people working alone. Her aim is to move caretakers into what she calls a space of courage. A very different kind of episode features Linnae Jacobs of the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families, who explains how the state assesses its special needs rate for child care assistance. Two state assessors score each area of a child's needs against a rubric, and the result falls into one of three levels. Requests for children who are nonverbal or who need help with toileting or eating tend to be approved. It is procedural and specific, and it is useful to anyone filling in the provider's part of that application. Melissa Hendricks brings AmazeWorks and its persona dolls, which come into a classroom as a trusted friend and a listener, so children can talk through problems, families and identities. Each doll comes with a curriculum guide that holds dozens of stories teachers can use as written or adapt for their own class. Dr. Chris Gendro, a pediatrician and returning guest, talks about nutrition and behavior. Her advice is reassuring rather than strict. White foods like bananas and potatoes are fine, bright berries and melons simply pack more, and a child who eats plenty of bright fruit may get away with fewer vegetables. Weigel mentions how much panic can surround feeding a small child, and the conversation treats that stress as real. Two of the Center's own staff, Brenda Lowe and Jacey Nylander, fill a two-part episode on coaching for infant and toddler care. They talk about the calm a coach brings into a room, about making a deliberate effort with children who don't connect right away, and about noticing what worked on a day that ended in a tantrum on the floor. They describe five parts of their approach that overlap, including individualization and communication with families. A good place to start is those two parts, heard back to back, since they were made as a pair. Every episode here ends by directing listeners to inclusivechildcare.org, which is a reminder that the show is also the Center's front door for its coaching and resources.
Made for: Suits a listener who cares for young children, at home or in a child care program, and wants concrete guidance from coaches, a pediatrician and state agency staff. Providers in Minnesota get one episode that walks through the state's special needs rate.
What sets it apart: This is the Center for Inclusive Child Care speaking for itself. Alongside child development, it covers how care actually gets run, such as how Minnesota scores a special needs rate application, and the Center's own staff speak openly about hard days with infants and toddlers.
Inclusion Matters is a new podcast produced by the Center for Inclusive Child Care. Topics covered include issues related to Inclusion Consultation
A pumpkin becomes the paint cup; suddenly your toddler's detour looks like the lesson.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A calm, useful conversation about trust, attachment, and building connection with infants and toddlers when it does not come easily.
Quality care for infants and toddlers starts before any coaching strategy gets named. It begins with the way adults enter a room, steady themselves, and become trustworthy.
A calm, practical conversation on how nutrition, gut health, and children's behavior can connect.
Nutrition and behavior come together in a warm, practical single-episode review of a conversation between Priscilla Weigel and pediatrician Dr. Chris Gendro.
A practical review of how wayfinding, training, and caregiver support help expand child care access.
This episode keeps its focus on the behind-the-scenes work that makes child care possible, with Priscilla Weigel speaking with Jeremy Trifles, Milestones' Executive Director, about support for children, families, and providers.
A grounded conversation on recognizing interdependence as a strength in early childhood partnerships with immigrant families.
Building Strong Partnerships looks at how early childhood professionals can misread immigrant families when U.S. ideas about independence are treated as the default.
A grounded look at how trauma-informed leadership helps children, families, and teams feel supported.
Trauma-informed leadership comes through as a daily discipline of noticing what needs care before anything else. Helene Pearson, director of Agape Child Development Center in North Minneapolis, describes setting compliance work and routine demands aside to be present with a…
Early childhood ideas with practical warmth.
Héctor and Beto dissect Mexican grammar, slang, and news in native-speed Spanish conversations.
Small habit changes meet hands-on AI experiments.
This episode introduces a podcast about children's development and inclusive child care practices.
An interview with Marie Lister about Young Hearts Open Minds, a program to prevent bias development in young children through early childhood education training.
An interview with a state specialist explaining the special needs rate in the Child Care Assistance Program for children with disabilities.
This episode introduces AmazeWorks, an organization that uses children's literature to promote belonging and acceptance in elementary schools, and discusses their inclusion work.
This episode discusses strategies for setting the stage for quality infant and toddler care, focusing on safety, relationships, attachment, and routines.
Brenda Lowe and Jacey Nylander, former coaches who supervise coaches at the Center for Inclusive Child Care, join Priscilla Weigel on Inclusion Matters to talk about quality care for infants and toddlers.
Dr.
James Zeta-Diggs connects immigrant-family partnership to the self-study Building Strong Partnerships: a Culturally Responsive Approach to Engaging Immigrant Children and Families on the Center for Inclusive Child Care website.
Inclusion Matters pairs Priscilla Weigel and Jeremy Trifles to trace how Milestones grew from a 1977 lending library into a statewide early-childhood support network.
Inclusion Matters focuses on trauma-informed early childhood leadership at Agape Child Development Center in North Minneapolis, with Helene Pearson and Priscilla Weigel centering the conversation.
Priscilla Weigel and Carmela Hatch, Early Literacy Coordinator at the Duluth Public Library, discuss how children from birth to five build reading foundations through the “Ready Five”: talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing.
Priscilla Weigel interviews Margaret Mahold, Director at Calvary Early Childhood Services, about creative opportunities for infants and toddlers.
Inclusion Matters marks its 300th episode by revisiting the Center for Inclusive Child Care’s work on inclusive early childhood education.
Cammie Howard, a licensed clinical social worker with more than 20 years of community experience, explains how parental incarceration affects young children and caregiving relationships.
Leo Howard III of Greater Twin Cities United Way describes “healthy distrust” as a rational protective response to systemic harm affecting Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities.
This episode features a conversation between a childcare center founder and a pre-K teacher about effective strategies for communicating with parents.
Inclusion Matters examines outdoor summer safety in Minnesota with host Priscilla Weigel and public health nurse Sarah Hawley of Minnesota Child Care Health Consultants.
Inclusion Matters host Priscilla Weigel interviews Program Manager Kelly Nelson about messy, open-ended outdoor play in early childhood settings.
Inclusion Matters examines sibling dynamics when one child in a family has a disability or other unique needs.
Priscilla Weigel and Cori Woosley discuss how early-childhood educators can deliberately support friendships for children with special needs rather than expecting relationships to develop naturally.
This episode introduces a podcast about children's development from the Center for Inclusive Child Care.
An interview with a counselor about building weight-inclusive and weight-neutral practices for early childhood educators.