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.
Vickie Maertz holds a Doctorate in Occupational Therapy and has worked with children for the past 32 years. She is a Level 3 trainer with TCPEDS. Vickie likes to find creative and interactive ways to teach not only the updates to minimum standards but also about special needs children... Read More →
Thursday March 20, 2025 9:15am - 11:15am CDT
Legends VII
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.
Assistant Teaching Professor, The University of Southern Mississippi
Dr. Susan Clark is an assistant teaching professor in Child and Family Sciences at The University of Southern Mississippi. In addition, she serves as the curriculum specialist at the campus-based Center for Child Development, which serves 100 children birth to 5 years of age and serves... Read More →
Thursday March 20, 2025 11:30am - 12:30pm CDT
Legends VI
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.
