Two and a half years after the start of COVID-19, Connecticut’s youngest citizens are experiencing record levels of need. In July and August 2022, referrals for early intervention services were up 30% over pre-pandemic levels. The state is seeing later identification of developmental delays and heightened concerns around children’s social and emotional wellness.
To help address this urgent challenge, the Office of Early Childhood launched Sparkler statewide in October 2021 for all families with children 0-5 years old and to programs serving families — building a mobile, local, accessible system of screening, learning, and connection across Connecticut. From October 2021 through September 2022, 8,842 screenings were completed via Sparkler, helping thousands of parents learn about their child’s development and as needed, available services. Today, Commissioner Beth Bye met with parents, community leaders, educators, and healthcare providers from across the state to release a progress report, describe the year of progress and offer an update on next steps.
“Supporting the optimal development of young children and their families is vitally important for individual families and our entire state,” OEC Commissioner Beth Bye said. “Sparkler helps parents use an app-based tool on their phone to check in on how their children are doing against key milestones, offers activities to spark healthy early learning, and helps families tap into the rich supports that our state offers. This work is critical given the COVID-related challenges our youngest children and their families still face.”
“We are proud to be working with the Office of Early Childhood, 211 Child Development, and partners across the State of Connecticut to spark children’s early learning and development,” said Sparkler Executive Director Julia Levy. “A year in, we can start to see the impact and the potential of this statewide collaboration.”
“Sparkler has opened the way to provide easy access for all parents to better understand and support early learning and development, with the added benefit of connecting caregivers to resources, including United Way of Connecticut 211 Child Development,” said Lisa Tepper Bates, United Way of Connecticut President & CEO. “It’s an important resource and we are proud to be the first in the nation to offer this tool along with our partners from the Office of Early Childhood and across the state.”
“It makes life a lot easier, and it really gives parents autonomy to be their child’s first teacher, for parents to understand what developmental milestones are, how they work, where they can support their children — it really is an invaluable tool that helps to make parenting a lot easier,” said Chelsey Harris, mother of three and Director of Early Care & Education at Waterbury Bridge to Success.
OEC released a report, available online at www.playsparkler.org/spark-early-learning-in-ct-10-18-22, on the year of progress. Key findings include:
Sparkler is now reaching families in more than 90 communities across the state.
Central support makes this work possible, but it is local communities that are leading the way in supporting and engaging Connecticut families; most parents have linked up via Sparkler with local schools and organizations in their communities.
7,000 new adults and 7,830 new children registered for Sparkler from October 2021 through September 2022. As of this week, there are more than 12,700 Connecticut children whose families are using Sparkler.
Sparkler prompted play-based learning across Connecticut: Families completed about 10,055 plays in the last year on the Sparkler app using Sparkler’s 2,000+ off-screen play learning activities, as well as browsing through the app more than 177,500 times to identify activities and access information to support their children.
Sparkler has helped Connecticut to increase developmental screening by offering the mobile Ages & Stages Questionnaires® (ASQs), which is on Sparkler’s mobile app. Families completed 5,182 ASQ-3s and 3,660 ASQ:SE-2s using Sparkler from Oct. 1, 2021 to Sept. 30, 2022 — a substantial increase in ASQs tracked centrally in Connecticut.
All families who completed an ASQ received outreach from 211 or a local program, and received context, answers, and, if needed, referrals for evaluations and support.
