Wee Breathers™
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The Wee Breathers™ program is designed to help health professionals who educate parents of children under age 7 learn to manage asthma. Since young children spend most of their time at home or with other caregivers, this flexible curriculum was created for educating parents one-on-one during a home visit or with a group of parents from the same child care center. Program materials include 7 one-hour lessons on key asthma management topics, an asthma trigger checklist for the home, an asthma trigger checklist for a child care center, and an instructor’s guide. All handouts for families are available in English and Spanish at a 6th grade reading level or lower.
Program Goals
Program Outline Instructor’s Guide
The Instructor’s Guide provides direction on using the Wee Breathers™ program materials with one family during a home visit or with a group of parents from the same child care center. The guide also includes facilitation tips and additional resources along with the development background of Wee Breathers™ for instructors.
Asthma-Friendly Home - A Checklist for Families This asthma trigger checklist is an easy-to-read and easy-to-use checklist for families to identify and control their child’s asthma triggers in their own home. Simple, low-cost actions are provided to help parents either eliminate or reduce the child’s contact with each of his or her asthma triggers.
Asthma-Friendly Child Care - A Checklist for Providers This asthma trigger checklist is a comprehensive and easy-to-use checklist for child care providers to identify and control asthma triggers in their child care center. Using the checklist annually will help staff keep their facility asthma- and allergy-friendly for the children they serve. Parents may also find this checklist helpful in evaluating whether a child care facility is asthma- or allergy-friendly for their child’s asthma triggers.
Lesson 1 – Asthma Basics
Lesson 2 – Asthma Triggers
Lesson 3 – Controlling Asthma Triggers
Lesson 4 – Asthma Medicines
Lesson 5 – Asthma Action Plan
Lesson 6 – Communicating with the Asthma Team
Lesson 7 – Asthma Management Goals
Program Materials The Wee Breathers™ program includes:
Preparation of Instructors Instructors for this program should be a certified asthma educator (AE-C), or other health professional (for example, nurse, respiratory therapist, physician or pharmacist) who is experienced with pediatric asthma management. The Instructor's Guide provides direction on using the Wee Breathers™ materials with one family during a home visit or with a group of parents from the same child care center.
Program Development The Wee Breathers™ program was developed and reviewed by an advisory team of asthma education professionals then field-tested with experienced asthma educators in English and Spanish across the United States during home visits and in groups of parents from the same child care center. Wee Breathers™ is based upon the Wee Wheezers at Home© program for home visitors, but has been reorganized by asthma management topic, expanded the asthma trigger control component for home and child care settings, and can be taught during home visits with one family or with many families in a group setting, like the children’s child care center. Young children (under the age of 7) spend most of their time at home or with other caregivers, so it makes sense to reach parents where their children spend most of their time.
The Wee Breathers™ program materials are downloadable free of charge thanks to support provided under a cooperative agreement (1UE1EH0000764) with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Environmental Health, Atlanta, Georgia. These publications were produced by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America and its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Free Downloadable Files
Wee Breathers™ Program Materials
Instructor’s Guide (English) Lesson 1 – Asthma Basics (English Lesson & Handouts) Lesson 2 – Asthma Triggers Lesson 3 – Controlling Asthma Triggers (English Lesson & Handouts) Lesson 4 – Asthma Medicines (English Lesson & Handouts) Lesson 5 – Asthma Action Plan (English Lesson & Handouts) Lesson 6 – Communicating with the Asthma Team (English Lesson & Handouts) Lesson 7 – Asthma Management Goals (English Lesson & Handouts) Asthma-Friendly Home - A Checklist for Families (English) Asthma-Friendly Child Care - A Checklist for Providers (English)
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