76th Annual SECA Conference

Babies are learning language from the moment they are born. As we learn more about how the brain develops, we have learned the importance of talking with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Current research practices for supporting early language and literacy place a specific focus on the connections between language and brain development. Dr. Patricia Kuhl from the University of Washington has conducted extensive research on early language and brain development. Her work has played a vital role in how we understand the effects of exposure to language at an early age supports the structure of the brain during the most pivotal developmental stage. Research from Dr. David Dickinson at Vanderbilt University explores specific ways adults can support language in young children through responsive interactions. 85% of brain development takes place during the first three years of a child’s life. The connections between oral language and literacy development show a supportive relationships to executive function skills, vocabulary acquisition, and home language and the impact of these on all future learning. By exploring specific techniques for talking and increasing conversational turns to support language development through child-directed speech, narrative talk, reading books, using home language, and storytelling activities adults working with children can support families in providing opportunities to increase the quality and quantity of spoken language through everyday practices. We will explore initiatives and programs that provide ways for practitioners, childcare workers, and families to gain access to resources to support practical strategies for increasing language and supporting brain development.

We know children learn best through play, but how do we facilitate play intentionally to prevent challenging behavior? In this session, we look at evidence-based play methods that are actionable and easy to implement. Simple strategies to build trust, engineer empathy skills, facilitate negotiation, and engage in sensory play with children displaying challenging behaviors will be shared. Join us and share some of your own strengths and struggles over play-based learning.

Young preschool children with special needs have limited capacity to communicate and connect to the real world. The surrounding adults play a critical role in the development of these preschoolers. However, there have been so many challenges nowadays due to the varied family structures and limited resources available for these family members after pandemic. There were very limited resources nor publications about practical partnership among family members, preschool teachers, and a higher Ed institution for the preschool children with special needs. This two-year Trilateral Approach provides a real opportunity to make the ideal evidence-based practices which happen in the real life of young preschool children in Eastern Kentucky.
This presentation will focus on sharing the firsthand activities that Families of preschool children with special needs from Eastern KY region went through and the effects of collaborated works among families, preschool teachers and the higher education institution for the development of preschool children with special needs along with its chain consequences on the development of siblings through family play activity time.

This session will start with a welcome and ice breaker activity, using types of art works to create table groups (Brown Bear, Brown Bear-connection)
The group will reflect on their personal experiences with art and exposure to art works. Time for sharing in small groups and a few whole group comments will help to establish commonality and possible new insights.
The objectives will be reviewed to help participants gauge if the content is what they expected. there will be post-it notes on tables for participants to write down questions for discussion at the end of the presentation. I will review the agenda for the session.
Teaching Points- What the typical toddler art experiences looks like (input form participants)
Common definition of "art" for our purpose today- It is not crafts or "make -it like this one."
PowerPoint examples of types of art works, how and where they can be integrated into the environment and some routines.
Exploration- time for participants to review samples of art and think about how they might appeal to children, where and how they can be made accessible.
Application- some examples and then time for participants to revisit the exploration samples and identify potential learning goals.
Implementation- make a plan for how you can start! Include type of art, materials you will need, how you will introduce it, where it will "live" in your room, and a timeline. Share ideas and hopefully have time for those questions.

This interactive session equips early childhood educators with the foundational knowledge of sensory processing in young children. Led by an occupational therapist with 27 years experience in pediatric field, the session explores how children experience the world through their senses. Participants will gain a practical understanding of sensory processing challenges and discover how to recognize signs in their classrooms.

Through engaging activities and real-life examples, educators will learn simple strategies to create supportive environments that cater to diverse sensory needs. The session will cover topics such as:

*The sensory system and its impact on learning
*Identifying signs of sensory over- and under-stimulation
*Adapting the classroom environment to promote sensory regulation
*Easy-to-implement activities that cater to different sensory preferences

By the end of this session, educators will feel empowered to create classrooms where all children can thrive and learn comfortably.

This session creates space for early childhood education practitioners and future practitioners to engage in activities and conversations centered around intentional and purposeful planning of opportunities and activities aimed at helping young children grow and develop a variety of math skills, processes and thinking.

Most teachers, therapists and childcare facilities are hesitant to deal with children with special needs, especially autism spectrum disorder because of the challenges they present.
We are breaking the barriers of limitations with a combination of awareness about disabilities and empowering parents. Facilitating inclusion helps all of us understand that we have more in common, being different physically or emotionally is just a normal part of life.

Children and Lead: What You Don't Know Can Hurt Them

Children under 6 are the most vulnerable to the effects of lead poisoning. The good news is that lead poisoning is 100% preventable. In this fun and informative session, participants will learn about the dangers of lead, common sources of lead, lead exposure prevention, and community resources for families.

In this session, we will share basics of coding in early childhood, computational thinking, and engineering. We will discuss methods of integrating literacy with these STEM disciplines. We will share methods that we used in our preschool classroom to integrate literacy with computational thinking and engineering, through lessons that included storytelling, problem solving, coding, and constructing. From activities ranging from coding a classmate to reach the Three Little Pigs house, sequencing familiar stories and creating our own, and engineering a boat for the Gingerbread Man that would float, students were able to explore STEM concepts through a literacy lens.

Meaningful planning is an essential practice to support optimal development for young children. This session will help participants plan and create activities that are meaningful. Participants will learn ways to extend learning through their interactions by implementing the CLASS tool. Participants will engage in hands-on activities to discuss ways to extend learning opportunities in meaningful ways.

In the last five years, extreme weather events in Louisiana have become more common as the rate of occurrence rose from 2.2 events per year to nearly 6 events per year (5.8; NCEI, 2024). The result is that young children under the age of 5 years old are growing up in a region where extreme weather events are commonplace. Yet, it is rare for early childhood curricula to address climate change (CC). Young children play an important role in the future of our environment because they frequently experience and will inherit the ongoing consequences of the increased incidences of extreme weather events.

This presentation shares the story of a 25-year-old female art teacher working at a school with students who identify as 50.5% Black, 28.4% White, 12.7% Hispanic, 6.9% Asian, and 1.5% Native American. The teacher began a lesson on CC by introducing a graphic text featuring an otter and his family in an extreme weather event requiring them to move their home. To promote dialogue with the children and gain an understanding of their experiences, she circulated around the room and asked children to discuss their drawings (i.e., “Tell me about your drawing” and “What happened?”). Results show that young children related to the displacement of the otter and relayed their own stories. Further, adults make attempts to insulate children to protect them from the stress of CC events. However, despite these efforts, children and adults in New Orleans face the stress of an uncertain future.

This session will help participants learn strategies for designing physical spaces and open-ended play provocations using loose parts that help young children develop skills in all developmental domains and individual approaches to learning.

Are you seeing escalating challenging behaviors in your classroom and/or program and feeling unsure how to create an effective plan to help both the teacher and child? This session takes a deep dive into the creation and use of easy to implement, actionable behavior change plans. Participants will be trained on FirstDay’s ABC-123 plan for effective prevention and responses to challenging behavior. Time and guidance will be provided to understand the key steps in a behavior change program and make specific plans to implement them in your own programs and classrooms.