Trainings Seek to Equip Early-Childhood Professionals to Assist the Opioid-Affected

Early childhood educators and care providers often have limited knowledge of how prenatal and childhood exposure to substances might manifest in the young people they work with every day. In an effort to see fewer of these children labeled hastily as “behavior problems,” Ohio State University is collaborating on two online training initiatives designed to expand the skills of daycare providers, preschool instructors, early intervention specialists and others who work with very young children.

A curriculum is being established for the newest of the two initiatives, which will offer professionals practical suggestions for taking a trauma-informed approach to working with children who have been affected by issues such as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) and neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome.

Andrea Witwer, PhD, an assistant professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health/Psychology at Ohio State, tells Addiction Professional that the guidance should not be characterized as evidence-based practice, since the field's understanding of how to address the fallout from the opioid crisis for children remains in an early stage.

Ohio State's College of Medicine and its developmental disabilities-focused Nisonger Center, where Witwer serves as director of training, are involved in both of the training initiatives, which are:

• An online module designed to offer a primer on topics such as NAS and the adverse childhood experiences that children of addicted parents can experience. More than 2,000 early childhood educators and care providers have completed the course, which includes data specific to Ohio but is open to professionals from any state. It is free to providers, although they agree when they participate to furnish information about their work with children.

• An online Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) learning collaborative that will share strategies for working with substance-affected children, with a mix of didactic, case discussion and problem-solving presentations. Witwer says sessions could begin by late February and will be conducted in eight 90-minute installments over a 16-week period.

The University of Cincinnati is also involved in both initiatives, and the University of Wyoming has been instrumental in the growth of the ECHO learning collaborative model. A small grant from the Association of University Centers on Disability supported the creation of the first training course.

Specialized needs

Many professionals who work with young children directly affected by the opioid crisis or other substance use problems in the family will express uncertainty about how to address these children's needs, Witwer says. They might not be prepared for an infant's frequent bouts of crying, or symptoms of hypothermia.

A trauma-informed approach will help the provider understand, for example, that some substance-affected children might have difficulty processing stimuli from being placed in a bright, busy, loud classroom.

“This stimulation might be looked at as great for children's development, but [for these children] it can be overwhelming,” Witwer says. “They're wired a bit differently.”